
Class. 



Book :M\t 



61ST Congress! 
Sd Session i 



SENATE 



(Document 
I No. 876 



JOHN WARWICK DANIEL 

(Late a Senator from Virginia) 



MEMORIAL ADDRESSES 

DELIVERED IN THE SENATE 

AND THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

OF THE UNITED STATES 



^' 



ii.1 



Proceedings in the Senate 
Februar>- 20, 1911 



Proceedings in the House 
June 24, 1911 



COMPILED UNDER THE DIRECTION OF 
THE JOINT COMMITTEE ON PRINTING 



WASHINGTON 

1911 



lz-ir/2.v 



/T^^^ 



-^'9't.t 







TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



Page. 

Proceedings in the Senate 5 

Prayer by Rev. Ulysses G. B. Pierce, D. D 5 

Memorial addresses by — 

Mr. Martin, of Virginia 9 

Mr. Lodge, of Massachusetts 35 

Mr. Root, of New York 40 

Mr. Perkins, of California 43 

Mr. Simmons, of North Carolina 50 

Mr. Swanson, of Virginia 56 

Mr. Money, of Mississippi 69 

Proceedings in the House 73 

Prayer by Rev. Henry N. Couden, D. D 74 

Memorial addresses by — 

Mr. Jones, of Virginia 77 

Mr. Ransdell, of Louisiana 84 

Mr. Clark, of Missouri 88 

Mr. Richardson, of Alabama 91 

Mr. Kahn, of California 96 

Mr. Glass, of Virginia 100 

Mr. Lamb, of Virginia 109 

Mr. Holland, of Virginia 116 

Mr. Slemp, of Virginia 118 

Mr. Flood, of Virginia 127 

Mr. Simmons, of New York 135 

Mr. Brantley, of Georgia 137 

Mr. Small, of North Carolina 142 

Mr. Saunders, of Virginia 145 



[3] 




HOI-i-JOHK V/. DANIEL. 



DEATH OF HON. JOHN WARWICK DANIEL 



Proceedings in the Senate 

December 5, 1910. 

The Vice President (James S. Sherman of New York) 
called the Senate to order at 12 o'clock noon. 

The Chaplain, Rev. Ulysses G. B. Pierce, D. D., offered 
the following prayer: 

Almighty God, our heavenly Father, in whose presence 
we now stand, look with favor, we pray Thee, upon Thy 
waiting servants now before Thee, and graciously hear 
the common supplication which with one heart and with 
one mind we make unto Thee. 

The absent faces remind us anew that it is not in us 
who walk to direct our steps, and that we are ever depend- 
ent upon Thee, without whom not a sparrow falleth. We 
remember before Thee, our Father, those of our body 
whom Thou hast called from these earthly courts to Thine 
higher service, and pray that there as here they may be 
compassed about by Thine everlasting arms. 

And for us, as we gird ourselves for the work to which 
Thou hast called us, we pray that we may be guided by 
Thy wisdom, and upheld by Thy strength; that this ses- 
sion, begun in Thy name, may be continued by Thy grace 
and ended to Thy glory. 

And unto the name which is above every name will we 
render praise, now and forevermore. Amen. 



[5] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator Daniel 

Mr. Martin. Mr. President, it is my painful duty to 
announce to the Senate that my late colleague, Hon. John 
W. Daniel, departed this life in the city of Lynchburg on 
the 29th day of June last. 

Senator Daniel had been a Member of the Senate for 
nearly 24 years, and had been reelected for a fifth term, 
which would have commenced on the 4th day of March, 
1911. I think I may be pardoned for saying that during 
his long service in the Senate no Member of the bodj' 
enjoyed in a higher degree than he did the esteem, the 
confidence, and the affection of his associates. I think I 
may say, too, that during his long term of service here no 
State was represented with more ability and fidelity than 
Virginia was by Senator Daniel. As a soldier, as a 
lawyer, as an author, as an orator, and as a statesman he 
attained great distinction and reflected honor on his State, 
where he was admired and beloved as no other public 
man has been in my recollection. 

This is not a time, however, for me to indulge in any 
extended remarks about Senator Daniel's public services 
or noble character. Later on I will ask the Senate to set 
aside a day when proper tribute can be paid to his mem- 
ory. I send to the desk some resolutions which I ask may 
be adopted. 

I will state that I do not at this time make a motion for 
the adjournment of the Senate because there are sad tid- 
ings from other States, which will have to be communi- 
cated to the Senate by other Senators before the motion 
should be made. 

The Vice President. The Secretary will read the resolu- 
tions submitted by the Senator from Virginia. 



[6] 



Proceedings in the Senate 



The Secretary read the resolution (S. Res. 287), as 
follows : 

Resolved, That the Senate has heard with profound sorrow of 
the death of the Hon. John W. Daniel, late a Senator from the 
State of Virginia. 

Resolved, That the Secretary communicate a copy of these reso- 
lutions to the House of Representatives. 

The Vice President. The question is on the adoption 
of the resolutions. 

The resolutions were unanimously agreed to. 



January 24, 1911. 
Mr. Martin. Mr. President, after conference with my 
colleague [Mr. Swanson] and with the Senators from 
Louisiana, and with their concurrence, I desire to give 
notice that on Monday, the 20th day of February, at half 
past 2 o'clock, I will ask the Senate to lay aside all other 
business in order that proper tribute may be paid to the 
memory of my late colleague. Senator Daniel, and the 
memory of the late Senator from Louisiana, Mr. McEnery. 



Monday, February 20, 1911. 
The Senate met at 11 o'clock a. m. 

The Chaplain, Rev. Ulysses G. B. Pierce, D. D., offered 
the following prayer: 

Almighty God, our heavenly Father, unseen but not 
unknown, in our great loss we take refuge in Thee, who 
hast been our refuge in all generations. In our sorrow 
Thy pity revives our fainting souls, and in our distress 
Thou hearest us as we call upon Thee. Thou hast, indeed, 
been unto us like the shadow of a great rock in a weary 
land. 

[7] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator Daniel 

And now, O heavenly Father, in our affliction give unto 
us the peace that floweth as a river. In our sorrow grant 
unto us the comfort that is born of hope and the faith 
that is rooted in love. As we meditate upon the life of 
Thy servants whom Thou hast called from our midst, 
make us worthy of the fellowship of the great cloud of 
witnesses with which Thou hast surrounded us. 

And unto Thee, who art the God of all comfort and of 
all grace, will we ascribe praise now and forevermore. 
Amen. 

Mr. Martin. Mr. President, I send to the desk the fol- 
lowing resolutions, which I ask may be adopted by the 
Senate. 

The Vice President. The Senator from Virginia sub- 
mits the following resolutions, which will be read. 

The resolutions (S. Res. 359) were read, considered 
by unanimous consent, and unanimously agreed to, as 
follows : 

Resolved, That the Senate has heard with profound sorrow of 
the death of the Hon. John Warwick Daniel, late a Senator from 
the State of Virginia. 

Resolved, That as a mark of respect to the memory of the 
deceased the business of the Senate be now suspended to enable 
his associates to pay proper tribute to liis high character and 
distinguished public services. 

Resolved, That the Secretary communicate a copy of these 
resolutions to the House of Representatives and transmit a copy 
thereof to the family of tlie deceased. 



[8] 



MEMORIAL ADDRESSES 



Address of Mr. Martin, of Virginia 

Mr. President : The duty that now devolves upon me to 
speak of the life and character of John Warwick Daniel, 
late my colleague in this body as a Senator from the 
State of "Virginia, is one the performance of which is 
attended with mingled emotions. 

It is with unfeigned pleasure that I add, to those which 
will be so much more fittingly expressed by others on this 
floor, my own humble tribute of admiration, affection, 
respect, and reverence for the memory of one who was 
an exemplar of all that is highest, noblest, and best in a 
manhood devoted to its country's service. And I confess 
to a frank and conscious pride in the privilege that is 
mine to speak of him in terms of an intimate relationship, 
based not only upon our joint service here for many 
years, nor merely upon our political association, but also 
upon a lifelong personal friendship. But these emotions 
are well-nigh swallowed up in a feeling of personal 
sorrow and loss that is yet too fi-esh and poignant to 
admit of my speaking unmoved of the man whom I 
devotedly loved and whose affectionate friendship I 
cherish in memory as one of the truest and closest that 
my life has known. 

One can but experience a keen satisfaction in the con- 
templation of a life that has been rich in accomplishment, 
blameless in conduct, crowded with deserved honors, and 

[9] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator Daniel 

blessed with that crowning glory of a great career— the 
devoted love of a faithful people. And this satisfaction 
may be shared by all whose thoughts at this hour are 
turned upon the career of John W. Daniel, for such a life 
was his in all its fullness. 

It was rich in accomplishment, indeed. As a youthful 
soldier he contributed no little to the glory and renown 
of the incomparable army in which he served. As a 
lawyer he adorned his profession and by his learning and 
ability shed an added luster upon it. As an author he 
gave to the profession legal textbooks which brought him 
international fame. As a scholar his attainments were 
rewarded by the degree of doctor of laws conferred upon 
him by two great universities. As an orator he has 
charmed, delighted, and instructed thousands by his elo- 
quence and has left to posterity a rich legacy of splendid 
orations which are destined to live among the finest 
known to our language. As a Senator his wisdom in 
counsel, his power in debate, his great knowledge of pub- 
lic affairs, his experience in legislation, and deep study 
of economics gave him high rank among the broad- 
minded statesmen of his time; and his conduct and 
example in the high office of Senator has exerted an 
influence upon this body that will be felt, for the country's 
good, for years that are yet to come. 

His life was as upright and blameless in conduct as it 
was rich in achievement. For more than a generation 
he stood forth in the full glare that shines about the man 
in exalted public office; and through all those years not 
a gleam fell upon him that was not reflected in undimmed 
purity from his untarnished soul. He waged many politi- 
cal battles, he took part in many professional conflicts 
of great importance, he has filled many oilices of public 
and private trust, and yet he so bore himself amidst the 
many temptations which must have surrounded him, as 



[10] 



Address of Mk. Martin, of Virginia 



they do every man, that when he finally lay cold in death 
no man could point to one dishonest deed or to a single 
act of his life born of an unworthy motive. In all my 
experience of men in public or private life I never knew 
one whose patriotism was more exalted, whose devo- 
tion to public service was more unselfish, whose loyalty 
was more unswerving, or whose integrity was more 
unimpeachable. 

It is not always true that the most capable and deserv- 
ing in this world receive the rewards and honors that are 
commensurate with their abilities and their deserts. Too 
often does it happen that self-assertion and demagogism 
win — for a time, at least — the outward tokens of a peo- 
ple's regard as well as the substantial fruits of their 
favor. But it is pleasing to record that John W. Daniel's 
life was filled with honors graciously bestowed; that he 
measured up in fullest stature to their every demand 
upon him, and yet bore them all with that unassuming 
modesty that was an essential part of his noble nature. 

He was but little more than a boy — still in his twenties — 
when he was elected to the House of Delegates of the 
General Assembly of Virginia. From that day, back in 
1869, down to the year of his death, when he was for 
the fifth time elected to a seat in this body, he was the 
recipient of almost every mark of favor and distinction 
that his people could confer upon him. 

If there is any one feature of Senator Daniel's career 
which, more than all others, distinguished it and set it 
apart, it was the personal love and affection with which 
he was regarded bj' his whole people. He was known 
and admired by the whole United States, in the South 
he was loved and revered, but Virginia adored him. 

He was known in every section of her broad domain. 
High and low, rich and poor, white and black, they all 
knew his face. They had heard his voice and clasped his 



[11] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator Daniel 

IuukI. They recognized his famihar crutch and never 
forgot the occasion for its use. Many of them had slept 
with him upon the field of hattle and touched his elbow 
as they marched into a common danger, and they knew 
he had never flinched nor failed. They had given him 
their trust and he had never betrayed them. They had 
sat enthralled under his matchless eloquence and had 
learned anew their glorious traditions and even more 
glorious history. They had seen him disdain the prof- 
fered bribe of self-interest and cast his lot with them 
and their poverty that, in sharing it, he might the better 
serve them. They knew him for what he was; and no 
man in the history of that great State, save only the peer- 
less Lee, has ever been so beloved or more sincerely 
mourned than this her favorite son who has so recently 
gone to rest. 

ANCESTRY AND BIRTH 

They that on glorious ancestors enlarge 
Produce their debt instead of their discharge. 

But John W. Daniel's life presents so complete a quit- 
tance of every debt to birth and breeding that one may 
without danger of detracting from the son recall the dis- 
tinctions of the sires. 

John Warwick Daniel was born in the city of Lynch- 
burg, Va., on September 5, 1842. He came of a dis- 
tinguished lineage, and one may find in the lives of his 
progenitors the promise of his own illustrious career. 

His grandfather, ^Yilliam Daniel, sr., was a man of the 
highest order of intellect, a lawyer of signal ability, and 
one of the ablest judges cf his day in Virginia. He was 
a member of the two famous legislatures of 1798 and 1799 
of that State. In the latter he was an associate of James 
Madison, who alone of all that distinguished company 
could be regarded as his superior. His great speecli in 
the legislatui'c of 1798 in advocacy of the renowned 

[12] 



Ai)niu:ss oi Mh. Mahtix, oi ViKdiMA 



" Resolutions," which had been prepared by Mr. Madison 
on the subject of the "Alien and Sedition Laws," was per- 
haps the al)lesl delivered by any member on that side of 
the great debate. 

For many years he was a judge of the circuit court of 
the State, and as such was a member of the general court 
as it existed prior to 1851. This court exercised final 
appellate jurisdiction in criminal cases, and the opinions 
of Judge Daniel, delivered from its bench, are noted for 
their lucidity and vigor, some of them being "leading 
cases " in Virginia, yet quoted with assurance by the pres- 
ent-day practitioner. As a man he was rugged and strong 
in character, of great dignity, possessed of the judicial 
temperament in a marked degree, and of the most incor- 
ruptible integrity. 

Peter V. Daniel, at one time a judge of the Supreme 
Court of the United States, was a kinsman of Senator 
Daniel, as was John M. Daniel, one of the most brilliant 
journalists of the South, and Briscoe B. Baldwin, a judge 
of the supreme court of appeals of Virginia. 

William Daniel, jr., the father of John W. Daniel, was 
one of the ablest lawyers and most distinguished judges 
that Virginia has produced. He was a cultivated scholar 
and a most eloquent speaker, being one of the most 
effective advocates in the State. While yet under 25, the 
required age for membership in that body, he was, in 
1831, elected to the house of delegates, the lower branch 
of the General Assembly of Virginia. He became of the 
requisite age, however, before his term of actual service 
began, and was admitted to his seat, to which he was three 
times consecutively reelected. 

His professional attainments and high character won 
for him, in 1846, an election to the supreme court of 
appeals, Virginia's court of last resort. There he served 
with great distinction until 1865, when the organized 

[13] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator Daniel 

government ol the State was displaced by that known as 
the Alexandria government, which had been recognized 
by Congress. This period of Virginia's judicial histoiy 
is, perhaps, her brightest; and Judge Daniel's opinions 
contributed no little to the high regard in which the court 
was held by the profession, not only in Virginia, but in 
other States as well. 

The mother of John W. Daniel was Sarah Anne (War- 
wick) Daniel, the daughter of John M. Warwick, Esq., a 
successful merchant, of Lynchburg, and one of her lead- 
ing citizens. She was noted for her beauty of character 
as well as of person, and was accomplished in all the 
graces of the sweet womanhood of that period. She died 
at the early age of 24, and John W. Daniel, who was but 
a child, and his infant sister were taken into the home 
of his maternal grandfather, where he was surrounded 
by all that was highest and best in the delightful homes 
of the old South, and where he grew into sturdy boyhood. 

Perhaps no one person exercised a more marked influ- 
ence upon his life than did this grandfather, John M. 
Warwick, for whom he entertained not only the warmest 
aficction but also the greatest admiration and respect, 
and to whom he paid this beautiful tribute: 

A nobler man never lived — liospitable, gentle, calm, self-poised, 
self-contained — a gentleman in honor, in manners, and in innate 
refinement. A pure and lofty soul, * * * he seemed to me 
everything that a man could be to be respected and loved. Suc- 
cessful from his youth in business, with a mercantile " touch of 
gold," he was rich and generous without pretension or pride; and 
when the end of the war prostrated his fortune, and he became 
old and almost blind, his easy dignity lost no feature of its serene 
composure, and out of his true heart came no cry of pain or 
complaint of man or fortune. * * * He accepted the dread 
issue of Appomattox without a murmur, and took the fate of his 
people with all the fortitude and manliness, and with none of 
the show, of the Roman senators who saw the barbarians enter 
Rome. 

[14] 



Address of Mr. Martin, of Virginia 



Truly, John W. Daniel was fortunate in having such 
a character to preside so intimately over his life during 
its impressionable and formative youth, and as a com- 
panion and example for his young manhood. 

MILITARY SERVICE 

At the age of 18, and still remembered as the very ideal 
of youthful beauty and chivalry, young Daniel was in 
attendance upon Dr. Gessner Harrison's noted prepai'a- 
tory school, in Nelson County, Va., when the Civil War 
begun. He did not hesitate a moment in deciding upon 
his course, but immediately withdrew from school and 
returned to his home. There he enlisted as a private 
in Company B, Second Virginia Cavalry, known as the 
" Wise Troop," which was organized in the city of 
Lynchburg. For several weeks this troop remained in 
Lynchburg, completing its organization and preparing for 
service in the field. Before it was ordered to the front, 
however, he was commissioned by Gov. Letcher as second 
lieutenant in the Provisional Army of Virginia, and he 
was assigned to Company C, Twenty-seventh Virginia 
Infantry, a regiment in what soon became known as 
Jackson's famous " Stonewall Brigade." 

He received his commission on May 8, 1861, and imme- 
diately reported for duty near Harpers Ferry. On 
account of his military training, received while attending 
Lynchburg College, he was assigned to duty as drillmaster 
and entered actively upon this service. 

His " baptism of fire " was received at the first battle 
of Manassas, July, 1861. In this battle he was struck 
three times. He received a glancing blow on his head 
from a fragment of a shell, but was protected by his cap 
from serious hurt. He was also struck in the breast by 
a spent bullet, which knocked him to the ground and 
stunned him, but this time a metal button on his coat 

[15] 



MiiMORiAL Ai)DRi:ssES : Senator Daniel 

preserved him from an actual wound. Later in the fight 
he was shot in the left hip by one of the New York 
Zouaves, who was plainly in sight at the time and with 
whom he had been engaged in a sort of long-distance 
duel. 

The last wound was quite severe, although he was able 
to walk off the field, using two muskets as crutches. He 
was carried to his home in Lynchburg, where he was con- 
fined to his bed for several weeks with fever attendant 
upon his wound. 

His conduct in this battle was notably gallant. Al- 
though he had never been under fire before and was but 
a mere lad, he displayed the most intrepid spirit and 
daring courage and fought witli all the steadiness of a 
veteran. In the midst of the battle and during a fierce 
charge, when the regimental color sergeant fell wounded, 
young Daniel sprang to his side, and seizing the fallen 
standard, bore it aloft and forward until relieved by 
command. He was commended for gallantry in action 
by his regimental commander in the report of the battle, 
and was thus effectively launched upon his militaiy 
career. 

While still recuperating from his wound and before he 
was able to return to his command the Provisional Army 
of Virginia was abolished and the young lieutenant who 
had deserved, and was confidently expecting, promotion, 
was without a commission. He was, however, promptly 
elected by its mcnil^ers to a second lieutenancy in Com- 
pany A, Eleventh Virginia Infantry, kno\\ n as tlie " Lynch- 
burg Rille Grays." He immediately reported to that com- 
pany at Centerville, where it was encamped, and from 
tlience he wrote his father that, while he had hoped for 
appointment to a higher rank, ujjon reflection he thought 
" a subordinate position attained by the suffrages of daily 
acquaintances and associates is far more honorable." 

[16] 



Address of Mr. Martin, of Virginia 



As an evidence of this confidence of his associates, 
which he so highly valued, he was reelected at the expira- 
tion of his enlistment in 1862. 

During the spring of 1862 he was authorized by the 
Secrctaiy of War of the Confederate States to raise a 
company of cavaliy for independent service, and suc- 
ceeded in doing so, being elected to the captaincy of the 
troop. But the conscription act of the Confederate Con- 
gress disbanded all sucli organizations before this com- 
pany was mustered in. 

It was during this same year that Mr. Benjamin, the 
Confederate Secretary of War, tendered him a commis- 
sion as lieutenant of ordnance in the regular army of the 
Confederacy. This appointment young Daniel declined 
because he feared it might cause his assignment to duty 
elsewhere than upon the actual field of battle. As Maj. 
Daniel often said, he wanted a place " on the firing line 
and in the picture by the flashing of the guns." 

Later in 1862 he was commissioned first lieutenant and 
adjutant of his regiment. Eleventh Virginia Infantry, upon 
the recommendation of its colonel, David Funston. It 
was while serving in this capacity that he was wounded 
in the left hand during the Battle of Boonsboro Mountain, 
Md., September 14, 1862. 

While standing with other officers on the line of battle 
watching its progress, and while in the act of passing his 
pistol from one hand to the other in front of his body, a 
rifle bullet struck his hand, passing through it and flat- 
tening itself against the pistol which it grasped. For- 
tunately it did not break any of the bones of the hand 
and he took his penknife from his pocket and cut the 
bullet from the wound himself. This bullet he retained 
throughout his life as a souvenir of this particular occa- 
sion, having caused it to be mounted as a watch charm. 



1004°— 11- 



[17] 



Memorial Addresses : Senator Daniel 

He took part in all the many battles and skirmishes in 
which this noted regiment was engaged until March, 1863, 
when he was promoted to the rank of major of cavalry 
and assistant adjutant general on the general staff of the 
Confederate Army and assigned to the division under 
command of Maj. Gen. Jubal A. Early. 

This rank and assignment enabled him to come more 
closely in touch with the actual operations of the army 
and the conduct of the war, much to his delight, for he 
was a born soldier, as well as a student of militaiy science. 
His many letters to his father and grandfather, written 
from the field and camp during this period, show a mental 
grasp of the military situation and a knowledge of men 
and affaii's that was remarkable in one not yet 20 years 
of age. 

Young, handsome, fearless, and bold, and filled with a 
patriotic fire born of his firm conviction of the right of 
the cause for which he fought, he was a beau ideal of the 
Confederate soldiery. No danger daunted him; no task 
was too exacting, for his was a service of loyalty and love. 
And, boy though he was, underlying it all was a dignity 
and self-respect wliicli he never forgot himself nor per- 
mitted others to disregard. 

Upon one occasion, during the first days of his service 
upon the staff of Gen. Early, that officer, with unthinking 
abruptness and with needless peremptoriness, accom- 
panied by an oath, ordered him upon some mission. The 
young adjutant drew liimself to attention, and, looking 
the old general directly in the eyes, said, " General, when 
you address me as one gentleman should address another 
I will obey j'our orders, but not otherwise." To the credit 
of Gen. Early, be it said, he was too great a soldier and 
himself too much a gentleman not to recognize the justice 
of the rebuke, and, revising the terms of the order, he 
never again in like manner trenched upon the sensibili- 



[18] 



Address of Mr. Martin, or Virginia 



ties of his young subordinate, who became his favorite 
officer of all his staff. 

While serving on the staff of Gen. Early he saw active 
service in many of the severest battles of the Civil War, 
including the great Battle of Gettysburg, until he received 
the final wound which permanently disabled him from 
military service on May 6, 1864, in the Battle of the 
Wilderness. 

During the progress of this battle, and while upon some 
service for Gen. Early, he noted a regiment of troops 
whose commanding oiTicer had been killed and which 
had been thrown into confusion and disorder. Realizing 
the necessity for prompt action, he placed himself at their 
head and was striving to reorganize them for an advance 
in the face of a terrific fire when he was struck in the 
left leg by a Minie ball. He fell from his horse and 
dragged himself behind a fallen log. Finding his thigh 
bone shattered and the femoral vein severed, he unwound 
the silken sash from his waist, and, making a tourniquet 
above the wound, stanched the flow of blood that had 
been dangerously profuse. This presence of mind and 
slight knowledge of surgery undoubtedly saved his life. 

This wound not only disabled him from further mili- 
tary service, but caused him untold agony and pain for 
many years thereafter and discomfort and distress all 
the remainder of his life. It was due to this injury that 
he ever afterwards walked with crutches, being unable 
to use the wounded member except very cautiously and 
for short distances. 

Immediately that he recovered from this wound suf- 
ficiently to move about, and realizing that his cherished 
ambition for a further military career was at an end, he 
accepted his condition as the fortune of war and turned 
himself to other fields. But all during his life he treas- 
ured his service in the army of his beloved South as the 



[19] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator Daniel 

most precious of all his memories. Other titles were 
conferred upon him which it was his privilege and right 
to adopt and use; but he preferred the simple " Major." 

After the war, when James L. Kemper, the commander 
of the famous Kemper's brigade, became governor, he 
appointed Maj. Daniel upon his staff with the rank of 
colonel. But the title of " colonel " never stuck to him. 
And as Maj. Daniel wrote in a brief autobiographical 
sketch he once began : 

In truth I did not desire that it should. I had won tlial of 
" major " in the steadiest army of liistory, the Army of Northern 
Virginia. * * * I have always regarded it, and regard it still, 
as Gen. Early called it, " my most honorable title." By it my 
comrades of battle know me; and when I die I wish it to be 
carved on a simple, unostentatious stone above my dust. 

Well might he say lie had won the title. He had won 
it by a bravery, a devotion, a dashing gallantry, and an 
efficiency of service not surpassed b}' any of his com- 
patriots. And whatever other inscriptions may be carved 
upon the monuments that will be reared to his memory 
none will bear to the generations yet to come a higher or 
nobler message of patriotism, of loyalty, and of duty than 
the simple legend, " Major in the Army of Northern 
Virginia." 

LAWYER AND AUTHOR 

After the war Maj. Daniel found himself, like many 
other young men of the South, with maimed body and 
shattered fortunes. The environment of wealth that had 
been his lot liad been changed by the blight of war, and 
lie realized that he must make his own fortune and carve 
out his own future. Deciding upon law as a profession, 
he entered the law school of the University of Virginia 
under the great teacher, John B. Minor. He had inherited 
from his father and grandfather a peculiar adaptability 
to his chosen profession, and his career as a student at 



[20] 



Address of Mr. Martin, of Virginia 



the university convinced all who knew him that he was 
marked for success at the bar. 

He began the practice of his profession in Lynchburg 
as a partner with his father, which partnership continued 
until the latter's death in 1873. Being studious by nature, 
diligent in research, and splendidly grounded in the great 
principles of the law, his intellectual ability, high char- 
acter, and power of advocacy soon established his reputa- 
tion. As his experience widened and his intellect matured 
he took higher and higher rank in his profession, until 
few lawyers of the country could be regarded as his equal. 
His learning, his habits of industry, and his thorough 
preparation of every case, together with his winning per- 
sonality and magnificent presence, made him a power 
before court and jury alike. 

For many years he was in full and active practice in the 
State and Federal courts of Virginia and in the Supreme 
Court of the United States. He appeared in many of the 
most important cases before the supreme court of appeals 
of Virginia, where his briefs were noted for their scholarly 
style, beauty of diction, logical arrangement, and argu- 
mentative force; and where his oral arguments are con- 
ceded to be the most masterly ever addressed to that 
tribunal. 

Altliough his public duties became more and more 
exacting as he grew older in the public service, he never 
lost his love for his profession and never withdrew 
entirely from its practice. For a number of years before 
his death he maintained a partnership with his son and 
his son-in-law and continued to the end to give personal 
attention to the more important business of the firm. 

Within three years from liis admission to the bar he 
issued his first legal textbook, Daniel on Attachments. 
This work, designed for use particularly in the States of 
Virginia and West Virginia, was published in 1869, met 

[21] 



Memorial Addresses : Senator Daniel 

with immediate success, and has ever since been regarded 
as a standard authority by the courts and bar of both of 
these States. 

His splendid treatise on " negotiable instruments " is 
the work by which he is best known to the profession gen- 
erally and is his legal masterpiece. He had this work 
under preparation during eight years, and, in the midst 
of the countless demands upon his time and energies, 
spent long periods in the law libraries at Richmond, Balti- 
more, and New York, where he could have convenient 
access to original authorities. 

The work first appeared in 1876, was at once recognized 
as the leading authority on the subject, and has ever since 
been regarded as a standard and a classic in all the courts 
of the English-speaking countries. His old law instructor, 
John B. Minor, one of the greatest, if not the greatest, law 
teacher of this countiy, and himself an author of a monu- 
mental legal work, once said with obvious pride: 

Upon the subject of negotiable instruments I bow my head to 
John W. Daniel, my pupil. 

His publishers, when the work was first in press, asked 
him in surprise how it happened that a " provincial 
lawyer" from a small town could have produced so 
excellent and exhaustive a treatise. He replied with his 
usual modesty that it was, perhaps, because he was a 
provincial la^^'yer from a small town, and therefore had 
the necessary time to give to its preparation. 

The work has been through five editions, in 1876, 1879, 
1882, 1891, and 1902. All of them, save the last, he pre- 
pared with his own hand. It is probably this book which, 
more than any other one thing, won for him his honorary 
degree of LL. D., which was conferred upon him by the 
University of Michigan, and also by Washington and Lee 
University in his own State. 



Address of Mr. Martin, of Vihoinia 



POLITICAL CAREER 



Maj. Daniel had scarcely become settled in the prac- 
tice of his profession before his intellectual gifts, his 
talent for public speaking, and his personal popularity as 
well, perhaps, as his natural inclination, forced him into 
the political arena. He was a Democrat of the purest 
extraction, and prided himself upon the fact that for over 
a hundred years he and his ancestors had voted with that 
party without ever scratching a ticket. 

He was elected as a Democrat to the Virginia House of 
Delegates in 1869, his constituency embracing the city of 
Lynchburg and county of Campbell, and served in that 
body for three years. 

In 1874 he was elected by the same constituency to 
the State senate for four years, and was reelected in 
1878. 

During his service in the State legislature he made an 
enviable reputation as a legislator, and especially as a 
debater upon the public questions under consideration 
at that time. He had taken an active part in the cam- 
paigns of his party and had won a personal following 
all over the State that insured his rapid political promo- 
tion. In the meantime, however, and due more to his 
youth than to any other cause, he had been twice defeated 
for the Democratic nomination for Congress, and once 
for the nomination for governor. 

But in 1881 he was nominated as the Democratic can- 
didate for the governorship. His speech of acceptance 
before the convention at Richmond was a masterpiece 
of political oratorj' and fired his party with enthusiasm 
and loyalty. The great issue of the campaign was the 
funding of the State debt, and thousands of those who 
had theretofore regularly supported the Democratic 
Party during this fight allied themselves with the Repub- 
licans, and under the party name of " Readjusters " the 

[23] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator Daniel 

coalition presented the most formidable opposition the 
Democrats had ever met, being led by Hon. William E. 
Cameron, an able, learned, and aggressive candidate. 

The campaign was the most brilliant ever waged in 
Virginia. The ablest men in the Commonwealth threw 
themselves heart and soul into the contest on one side or 
the other, and public interest was aroused to the highest 
pitch of excitement. 

Tliroughout the contest John W. Daniel was the cen- 
tral figure. He swept over the State, from the mountains 
to the sea, and eveiywhere cast the spell of his magnetic 
eloquence over the thousands who crowded to hear him; 
revealing to them his high motives, his magnificent abili- 
ties, and his splendid qualifications for leadership. And 
although his party was defeated at the polls, he had so 
firndy established himself in the confidence and regard 
of the people that from that day he became a leader in 
Virginia whose clarion voice could ever summon a host 
to follow and whose supremacy in their affections was 
never afterwards open to question. 

In 1884 Maj. Daniel was elected to Congress from the 
sixth congressional district and had scarcely entered upon 
his actual service when he was elected to the United 
States Senate for the term beginning March 4, 1887. To 
this high oiTice he was reelected four consecutive times, 
each time without part^' opposition and twice by the 
unanimous vote of the legislature. 

He was elector at large on the Democratic ticket in 1876 
and delegate to eveiy Democratic national convention 
since 1880 except that of 1884. He became a familiar 
and favorite figure at these gatherings and was elected 
temporarj^ chairman of the convention of 1896. 

In 1901 he was elected a member of the Virginia con- 
stitutional convention and would inevitably have been 
elected its president had he permitted himself to be placed 

[24] 



Address of Mr. Martin, of VnuiiMA 



in nomination for that office, but, with characteristic 
generositj', he declined to do so, and said: 

There arc so many gentlemen who are eminently worthy of 
this ofTice in the convention that it would seem appropriate to 
confer the distinction on some one of them who has not been so 
favored as myself. 

He was made chairman of the committee on suffrage, 
and entered so vigorously upon the work of that body, 
immediately following a trying session of Congress, that 
his health gave way under the strain, and for several 
months he was compelled to withdraw from attendance 
upon its sessions. He was able to return, however, before 
its close and took a prominent part in the debates upon 
its floor and in the actual framing of Virginia's present 
organic law. 

At the time of his deatli Maj. Daniel was the oldest 
Democratic Senator in point of service, and but four 
among its entire membership had seen a longer con- 
tinuous service in this body. By virtue of the rule of 
seniority which prevails here, he held membership upon 
two of the Senate's most important committees, and 
enjoyed all the power and prestige incident thereto. But 
apart from this, and by virtue of his character, ability, and 
personality alone, there w^as no Senator on this side of 
the Chamber and but few on the other who exercised a 
wider or more potent influence both here and beyond 
these walls. 

His unfailing courtesy and gentle manners, his honesty 
and frank candor, his consideration for others, and his 
strict observance of all the highest and best traditions of 
this body not only made him a conspicuous and attractive 
figure but endeared him to all his associates. And now 
that he is gone, and we no longer see his familiar face and 
hear his well-known voice, it is not only the distinguished 
Senator whom we miss, but a cherished friend as well, 
for whom we sincerely grieve. 



25] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator Daniel 



ORATOR 

It is doubtful if any man in public life since the days of 
the great triumvirate of oratory in this body has surpassed 
Senator Daniel in all the qualifications of a great orator. 
To a mind stored with classic learning and teeming with 
the riches of a broad and brilliant culture, nature had 
contributed the aid of features strikingly handsome, a 
noble countenance, and a pleasing voice. Manly in bear- 
ing and commanding in presence, he was a splendid fig- 
ure, to which his lameness added a touch of the pictur- 
esque. Trained from his youth in the arts of public 
speaking, with gestures full of grace and a tongue 
schooled to rounded phrases, he won the attention of his 
auditors with his first sentences, and, captivating their 
minds with his brilliance and logic and firing their 
enthusiasm with his eloquence, he frequently swayed 
them almost at will. 

From his earliest manhood he was in constant demand 
as a speaker on public occasions, and has perhaps deliv- 
ered a greater number of prepared addresses than any 
other man of his day. His subjects covered a wide range, 
and he was sometimes happiest in a lighter vein, but he 
was always thoughtful and never spoke for the sole pur- 
pose of entertainment. 

At the unveiling of the recumbent statue of Robert E. 
Lee, at Lexington, Va., in 1883, he delivered the memorial 
address. To this occasion he brought not only all of his 
great gifts, but an affection and veneration for his subject 
that filled him with inspiration, and the result was a 
magnificent oration that aroused his hearers to the highest 
pitch of enthusiasm and was immediately acclaimed all 
over the countiy as a masterpiece of orator^'. It was 
undoubtedly his greatest effort, and among the many 
splendid addresses he has elsewhere delivered it stands 
preeminent and will survive as a classic. 

[26] 



Address or Mr. Martin, of Virc.inia 



But had he never made this speech, numerous others 
would have made him great in this field, for there is a 
long list of ceremonial occasions upon which he delivered 
orations worthy alike of the occasion and himself. Among 
those deserving especial mention because of their beauty 
and eloquence are: 

His speech delivered at the ceremonies attending the 
dedication of the Washington Monument. 

His addi-ess upon " Jefferson Davis," delivered before 
the Legislature of Virginia upon its invitation. 

His address upon " Stonewall Jackson." 

His address at Kings Mountain upon the centennial 
anniversary of that battle. 

His speech upon " Virginia," delivered at Chicago dur- 
ing the World's Fair on Virginia day. 

His address in the House of Representatives at the cele- 
bration of the centennial of the establishment of the 
Government at Washington. 

His speech at the Confederate Reunion in New Orleans. 

His address upon "Abraham Lincoln." 

His oration at the unveiling of the bust of John B. 
Minor, at the University of Virginia. 

His speech upon " Thomas Jefferson." 

His address upon "Americanism," at the University of 
Michigan, and his two lectures, "The English-Speaking 
People" and "The Unities of the Union." 

It is needless to mention his many magnificent speeches 
delivered upon this floor. Always alert as to the busi- 
ness under consideration, and ready and able to maintain 
himself at all times in running debate, yet he rai'ely 
addressed the Senate except upon questions of impor- 
tance and only after careful preparation. Upon occasions, 
however, when the exigencies of the moment required, he 
would take the floor for an impromptu speech, and always 
commanded the most respectful attention, for the Senate 



[27] 



Memorial Addresses : Senator Daniel 

had learned that lie nevei' spoke save when he had some- 
thing to say worth while for it to hear. 

His great speech in the Senate on " The Free Coinage 
of Silver" is justly regarded as among the ablest of all 
the manj' utterances upon that subject, and that upon 
"The Independence of Cuba" was an especially brilliant 
example of his eloquence and power. 

Upon the stump he was peculiarly effective. Delight- 
ing to mingle with the great masses of the plain people, 
for whom he entertained the greatest admiration and 
respect, he accepted every convenient opportunity to 
address them in their small towns and country villages; 
and many of his finest speeches were made upon such 
occasions. 

With all his splendid capacities and powers, he never 
permitted them to be ajiplied to invective or bitterness or 
ridicule. But always and ever he displayed an innate 
courtesy, an easy dignity, a gentleness of bearing, a frank- 
ness and candor, and a nobility of thought that robbed 
the most carping critic of any doubt of his sincerity and 
mental integrity. And whether in the United States Sen- 
ate, or before the most distinguished courts, or upon the 
village greens of Virginia, he was equally at his ease; 
because lie was always conscious of his own honesty of 
purpose and purity of motive and knew that nothing save 
a lack of these need make him afraid. 

His tongue was taught no phrase of harshness; 

His lips could speak no word of guile; 
But gentleness and truth, twin virtues, 

Attended him, with sweetest smile. 

THE MAN 

John W. Daniel was one of the most lovable of men. 
He possessed a personal magnetism that seemed to draw 
to him all classes and conditions alike. Sweet tempered 



[28] 



Address of Mr. Martin, of Virginia 



and serene, responding to every advance of friendliness 
and affection, and with a superb loyalty to those admitted 
to his friendship, he became a general favorite from his 
first appearance in the Senate. While ever a stanch 
defender of Virginia and the South, brooking no unjust 
attack upon either from any quarter, he yet had none of 
the rancor and bitterness that too often displayed itself 
on both sides of this Chamber, especially during the 
earlier days of his service. 

It is doubtful if any one man during more than a gen- 
eration past has exerted a greater influence in the restora- 
tion of the harmony and friendship between the North 
and the South that is now so happily accomplished. It 
was one of the treasured purposes of his life. In the 
course of his eulogy upon the late Senator Quay, delivered 
upon this floor, and after referring to the era of ill-feeling 
that had so long existed, he said: 

I could pay to his memory no better and no sincerer tribute, 
and for my country could express no better wish, than by saying 
at his open grave, " God grant that the departed era may return 
no more to our country." 

Because of this trait of character, pei'haps, as well as 
his many other virtues, he has numbered among his 
warmest friends and admirers men whose political faith, 
sectional affiliations, and familiar associations were utterly 
at variance with his own. And thus we see one Republi- 
can Vice President directing his portrait to be forwarded 
to Senator Daniel with warmest expressions of affection, 
and another who writes him from far-off China : 

I could pay to his memory no better and no sincerer tribute, 
and that you will enjoy a well-earned vacation. Conserve your 
strength, for the country has much need of you. 

Mere incidents in themselves, but evidences of the uni- 
versal regard and esteem in which he was held by all his 
associates here. 



[29] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator Daniel 

In liis family relations he was a most devoted husband 
and loving father, whose keenest delight was to do some 
act that would bring pleasure to wife or children. Sim- 
ple and unaffected in his manners and habits, hut stately 
in his courtesy and native dignity, he was a typical " gen- 
tleman of the old school," and as a brilliant Virginia 
editor recentlj' wrote in an appreciative editorial, " the 
pity of it is that the ' old school ' has closed its doors and 
the type is no longer produced." 

His affability and approachableness were known to 
everyone in his home town of Lynchburg, and his daily 
drives to his ofhce were almost triumphal processions. 
Evei-j'body wanted to speak to " The Major," as they all 
called him, and to shake his hand. And to none, whether 
white or black, was his gracious and courteous salute 
denied. 

He was a most indefatigable worker; and until recent 
years rarely ever retired until long after midnight. He 
preferred the undisturbed quiet of later hours for his 
labors, although his wonderful power of concentration 
enabled him to work under conditions that would have 
driven most men from the attempt in despair. Few could 
have sustained their strength under the burden of work 
he imposed upon himself, nor could he have done so 
except for his splendid constitution and his peculiar 
ability to sleep anywhere and at any time when he so 
willed. 

The lure of gold never dazzled the eye of John W. 
Daniel. His attainments and professional ability brought 
him many flattering offers that would have meant oppor- 
tunities to accumulate a fortune commensurate with the 
value of the service sought from him. But he preferred 
the daily association with those whom he aflfectionately 
called his " own people," and the environment and atmos- 
phere of his native Virginia; and after 30 years spent 

[30] 



Address ok Mr. Martin, of Virginia 



almost continuously in puljlic office, he died as poor in 
purse as when he began. But he has left to his children, 
in the memory of his illustrious career, his incorruptible 
honesty and stainless honor, and in the assurance of his 
enduring fame a heritage more to be treasured than all 
the riches of the world. 

ILLNESS AND DEATH 

During the fall of 1909, while Senator Daniel was in 
Philadelphia, he was taken ill with pneumonia and was 
confined for some weeks to his room at the Bellevuc- 
Stratford. Before he was sufficiently restored to strength 
to return home he suffered a slight stroke of paralysis 
which affected his right hand and leg. This attack was 
not dangerous in itself and, returning to Lynchburg, he 
soon recovered therefrom. But it was premonitoiy of a 
serious condition and none knew better than he what it 
portended. His father and grandfather alike, at about 
his age, had died from attacks of apoplexy; and he had 
frequently stated his belief that his end would come in 
like manner. 

Under directions from his physicians he went to Florida 
during February, 1910, in the hope that a few weeks in 
the open air of its congenial climate would enable him 
to return to his duties in the Senate. But while at Day- 
tona, on March 8, he suffered a severe stroke of paralysis 
affecting his whole left side. The news of his grave con- 
dition brought sorrow and fear to evei-y heart; and when 
later he lapsed into coma and his death seemed immi- 
nent, Virginia fell upon her knees and prayed that he 
might be spared to her j^et a little while longer. For 
many weary weeks he battled for his life, and so far 
maintained his strength that his family were able to bring 
him back to his beloved Virginia on April 24. There all 
that love could suggest and science could accomiilish 



[31] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator Daniel 

was done for him; and for many more wearj^ weeks the 
fight continued, now with a ray of hope to cheer, and 
again with the grim desperation of almost hopeless 
despair. 

And during all these trjing days the bulletins of his 
condition were the foremost items of news to the whole 
people of Virginia. They literally watched at his bedside 
with his family and joined them in their tearful prayers, 
as was the right of their boundless love and admiration. 
But the hand of fate was upon him, and on June 29 he 
suffered another and severer stroke, and it was known 
his hours were numbered. And when, at 10.35 o'clock on 
that night, the tolling bells of the city rang out the sad 
message that the end had come, Virginia bowed her head 
and abandoned herself to grief. 

In obedience to his own well-known desires his obse- 
quies were as simple and unostentatious as the determina- 
tion of the people to honor his memorj'^ would permit. 
His body lay in all the calm dignitj^ of death, without 
ceremony or any trappings of state, in the home of his 
beloved daughter. There many of his old comrades in 
arms and lifelong friends, among both races and from 
all ranks and stations, came to look their last upon his 
noble face, which bore upon it the stamp of that serenity 
and peace wliich gave assurance that his oft-expressed, 
dearest wish had been fulfilled, and that he had " passed 
out of the world at peace with God and man." 

The impressive Episcopal service for the burial of the 
dead was read in St. Paul's Church in the presence of the 
governor of Virginia and his staff, the senatorial and con- 
gressional delegations, the delegations from the two 
Houses of the General Assembly of Virginia, many of the 
officers of the State and city, and an assemblage of dis- 
tinguished citizens that taxed the capacity of the edifice. 
The cortege was formed for its journey to beautiful Spring 

[32] 



Address of Mr. Martin, of Virginia 



Hill Cemetery, preceded by battalions of State militia 
and with the band playing the beautiful hymn, " Nearer, 
My God, to Thee." A solemn stillness which pervaded 
the air bespoke the splendid tribute of his native city — 
not a wheel of industry was turning, every business house 
was closed. 

The mournful procession for more than a mile of its 
sad journey moved onward between solid masses of the 
city's people, and the flowing tears that fell from the eyes 
of strong men and sweet women alike attested the fact 
that it was no idle curiosity that brought them forth, 
but that it was their last tender tribute to a departed 
friend. 

As the sun was slowly sinking in the west the body was 
lowered to its final resting place. His beloved comrades 
of the Army of Northern Virginia formed a cordon about 
his open grave, a volley of musketry rang out upon the 
air, taps was sounded, the old soldiers in gray stood at 
their final salute, the grave was covered with beautiful 
flowers, and all that was mortal of John W. Daniel was 
closed to the sight of man forever. 

But John \V. Daniel is no more dead than are other 
thousands of the great and good whose works yet live 
after them and whose influence is yet felt upon the 
earth. Men such as he can not live and die and count 
death the end. But for countless years will his tongue 
continue to speak to listening thousands and uplifting 
them by his noble thoughts. And for generations yet to 
come will men be higher and nobler themselves because 
of his nobility and purity of character. 

In due course a monument is to be erected to the mem- 
ory of Senator Daniel in his native city of Lynchburg. 
An offering from the entire people of the State of Virginia, 
it will be beautiful and enduring. But whatever of art 
may be spent upon its design it can not be more beautiful 

1004°— 11 3 [33] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator Daniel 

than the character it is to commemorate, and whatever 
material may enter into its construction it will crumble 
into dust before the name of John W. Daniel shall have 
been forgotten or his influence shall have ceased to live. 
For he was a 

Statesman, yet friend to truth, in soul sincere. 
In action faitliful, and in honor clear. 



[34] 



Address of Mr. Lodge, of Massachusetts 

Mr. President: 

When sorrows come, they come not single spies, 
But in battalions! 

Shakespeare's melancholy and noble lines have been 
brought to my mind only too frequently in these last 
months as death has descended again and again upon the 
Senate. Day before yesterday I joined in the ceremonies 
which commemorated the life and services of my good 
friend Senator Claj\ To-day I rise again to speak of a 
distinguished man, also a friend of many years, who was 
so long the senior Senator from Virginia. 

Senator Daniel was to me, from the time when I first 
saw him here, one of the most interesting figures in the 
Senate and in our public life. As I came to know him 
well, interest deepened into real affection, and I sorrow 
for him not only as a loss to the Nation and to Virginia, 
but as a friend whose departure I shall always mourn. 

When, as a Member of the House, I first saw him on 
the floor of the Senate I was arrested by his appearance 
and found a fascination in watching him. He was veiy 
striking in his looks, with a head and face which would 
have been remarked anywhere and in any assemblage of 
men. He reminded me of the portraits of the leaders of 
the French Revolution — the men who destroyed an ancient 
monarchy, reorganized France, and shook the civilized 
world from center to circumference. In nearly all their 
faces, as in his, one sees strangely commingled with the 
gaze of the dreamer and the visionarj' that expression of 
intense energy which is so easily translated into action. 



[35] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator Daniel 

They were very young for the most part, those leaders 
of the French Revolution; thej' did great deeds, whether 
for weal or woe; they conquered young and they died 
young. In nearlj' all we see that strange look which 
seems to belong to those wlio are ready to sacrifice youth 
and joy and life for the faith which absorbs their being. 

Senator Daniel had long passed youth, had gone bej'ond 
middle age, and yet he seemed to me still to have the 
expression of those who in the flush of young manhood 
sought the great prize of death in battle for the sake of 
])eliefs to which their hearts clung; in pursuit of visions 
seen only by them. The touch of romance, the look of 
the dreamer, the passionate energy of the man of action, 
all seemed to meet in his aspect and his eyes. 

With a brilliant record as a soldier, not merely eminent 
at the bar, but as a writer on law of high authority, after 
much public service in his own State and in the House of 
Representatives, Senator Daniel came to this body with 
distinction already achieved and with a high reputation 
in many fields already secured. He had as a gift of 
nature gieat eloquence of speech, and this gift had not 
only been enlarged by care and practice, but had been 
made weighty and serious by the studies he had pursued 
and by the reflective and pliilosophical cast of his mind. 
One could easily disagree with him, but he never failed to 
arrest the attention or to furnish food for thought in what 
he said. His style was of the old school, the richer and 
more florid style of the first half of the nineteenth century. 
It has passed out of fashion now. The modern taste is 
for something plainer, more direct, more businesslike, 
because this is an age when business is regarded as of the 
first importance in every department of human activity. 
Yet the school to which Senator Daniel belonged pro- 
duced speakers who have never been surpassed in the 
annals of oratory. The faults, both of the period and of 



[36] 



Address of Mr. Lodge, of Massachusetts 



the school, can he easily pointed out, but the heights in 
the great art of speech to which some of the men of that 
age attained remain to-day lonely and unsealed. Sen- 
ator Daniel exhihited all the qualities of that earlier time 
in high degree, and it was possible to those who lent an 
attent ear to learn from him many lessons which would 
not be without great profit even at the present time. In 
him there was always dignity and, what is of infinitely 
more importance, that sincere respect, not merely for his 
audience, but for what he was himself doing and saying as 
a public man, which is so often neglected, to the great 
detriment of speakers and listeners alike. He had in 
large measure the "high seriousness" which Aristotle 
commends in the poet. 

He did not speak on many subjects. He was not an 
incessant talker. But upon any topic which engaged his 
attention he spoke copiously and well, and never failed 
to show that he had thought much and independently 
upon the questions involved. He liked large issues 
because they offered the widest opportunity for specu- 
lation as to causes and for visions of the future. This 
reach of mind made him an American in the largest sense 
and showed clearly in the note of intense patriotism 
w^hich sounded so strongly in his more formal addresses. 

It was always a pleasure to talk with him, for he was 
unfailingly suggestive and ranged widely in his thought. 
The grave courtesy of his manner, which never wavered, 
had to me a peculiar charm. I should not for a moment 
think of hinting even that the manners now generally 
in vogue are not better, but they are certainly different. 
Manners like those of Senator Daniel, I suppose, would 
be thought to take too much time, both in acquisition 
and practice, among a generation which can employ its 
passing hours so much more usefully. Yet I can not 
divest myself of the feeling, an inherited superstition. 



[37] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator Daniel 

perhaps, that manners such as his — serious, gracious, 
elaborate if you please, but full of kindness and thought 
for others — can never really grow old or pass out of 
fashion. 

He loved his countiy and he loved her history. He 
cherished with reverence her institutions and her tradi- 
tions. It could not be otherwise, for he was a Virginian, 
and the history and traditions of his own State outran all 
the rest. Others may disregard the past or speak lightly 
of it, but no Virginian ever can, and Senator Daniel was 
a Virginian of Virginians. 

He believed, as I am sure most thoughtful men believe, 
that the nation or the people who cared naught for their 
past would themselves leave nothing for their posterity 
to emulate or to remember. He had a great tradition to 
sustain. He represented the State where the first perma- 
nent English settlement was founded. He represented 
the State of George Washington. 

I will repeat here what I have said elsewhere, that, 
except in the golden age of Athens, 1 do not think that any 
community of equal size, only a few thousands in reality, 
has produced in an equally brief time as much ability 
as was produced by the Virginian planters at the period 
of the American Revolution. Washington and Marshall, 
Jefferson and Madison, Patrick Henry, the Lees and the 
Randolphs, Masons and Wythe— what a list it is of sol- 
diers and statesmen, of orators and lawyers! The re- 
sponsibility of representing such a past and such a tradi- 
tion is as great as the honor. Senator Daniel never 
forgot either the honor or the responsibility. Can more 
be said in his praise than that he worthily guarded the 
one and sustained the other! 

The Civil War brought many tragedies to North and 
South alike. None greater, certainly, than the division 
of Virginia. To a State with such a historj% with such 



[38] 



Address of Mr. Lodge, of Massachusetts 

memories and such traditions, there was a peculiar cruelty 
in such a fate. Virginia alone among the States has so 
suffered. Other wounds have healed. The land that was 
rent in twain is one again. The old enmities have grown 
cold; the old friendships and affections are once more 
warm and strong as they were at the beginning. But the 
wound which the war dealt to Virginia can never be 
healed. There and there alone the past can not be 
restored. One bows to the inevitable, but as a lover of 
my counti-y and my countrj''s past I have felt a deep pride 
in the historj' of Virginia, in which I, as an American, 
had a right to share, and I have always sorrowed that an 
inexorable destiny had severed that land where so many 
brave and shining memories were garnered up. That 
thought was often in my mind as I looked at Senator 
Daniel in this Chamber. Not only did he fitly and highly 
represent the great past, with all its memories and tradi- 
tions, but he also represented the tragedy, as great as the 
history, which had fallen upon Virginia. To the cause in 
which she believed she had given her all, even a part of 
herself, and the maimed soldier with scars which com- 
manded the admiration of the world finely typified his 
great State in her sorrows and her losses as in her glories 
and her pride. 



[39] 



Address of Mr. Root, of New York 

Mr. President: It is a melancholy satisfaction to add my 
word of tribute to the memory of Senator Daniel. I 
knew of him first as the author of a painstaking, accurate, 
and clear work upon one of the diy and technical 
branches of the law. I wondered that the nature which 
could bring itself to the labor of preparation and exposi- 
tion in such a field could also be the nature of a gallant 
soldier and a convincing and stirring advocate; still more 
that it could be the nature of an orator, with the breadth 
of view and the loftiness of idealism and tenderness of 
sympathy which made him potent to move the masses 
of men. 

1 first came to know him when the interests of the peo- 
ple of his State of Virginia brought him into the Depart- 
ment of War and into consultation with the head of the 
department. I do not know that in all the years of expe- 
rience as head of the Department of War and then as 
head of the Department of State, which brought me into 
contact with so many of the strong and able men of our 
country, I have ever been more impressed, I doubt if I 
have been ever so much impressed, by the personality 
of any man as 1 was by the personality of Senator Daniel. 
His distinguished and sincere courtesy, the grave dignity 
which characterized his demeanor, the simplicity, direct- 
ness, and truthfulness of his utterances, the ingenuous- 
ness of his motives, were so apparent that above all the 
men whom I have ever known he created an atmosphere 
which lifted up those about him to the same high plane 
of his own noble purpose. 



[40] 



Address of Mr. Root, of New York 



His courtesy was not mere manner. His manner was 
but the expression of a sensitive and noble spirit exhibit- 
ing itself through the forms of a great tradition. The 
sensitiveness of his sympathy impressed upon everyone 
who knew him the certainty that he was a pure, sincere, 
and noble gentleman. The kindliness and considerate 
character that was displayed in his action and his words 
furnished a guaranty of his justice, of his considerate and 
thoughtful regard for the rights, the feelings, and the 
prejudices of others. He never left the War Department 
or the State Department in my time that I did not feel 
myself a better gentleman and a better officer for having 
come under his influence and having been within the 
sphere of the atmosphere that surrounded him for even 
the few minutes of our interviews. 

Ah, sir, that was the nature that breathes the very soul 
of patriotism and love of countiy. Brave soldier as he 
was, earnest advocate as he was, indomitable in every 
enterprise to which he set his hand, fearless as against 
all opposition or attack, he had that essential regard for 
the rights, the feelings, the prejudices of all his countrj'- 
men which makes it possible for the people of a free, self- 
governed countiy to live together in peace and harmony, 
and to love their country and their countrymen. 

He was the product of those centuries during which 
the formative power developing the people of the United 
States proceeded from a race of men whose characters 
were affected by the calmness and serenity of rural life. 
The landholders of North and South, of New England 
and the Middle Slates, of Virginia and Georgia and the 
Carolinas, the people of all our States who, with their 
fathers, had owned their own land, had acknowledged- 
had known — no superior, socially or politically, coming to 
manhood in self-respecting independence, with unhurried 
development of character, not feverish or hysterical. 



[41] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator Daniel 

but reflective, calm, strong, considerate. These were the 
men who made the earlier history of our country, and 
from them came Senator Daniel. A new life is urging 
forward the movements of our people. The rush, the 
haste, the tumult, the unthinking excitement of the strug- 
gle for wealth are displacing the old calmness and reflec- 
tive training. 

But, sir, the influence of which Senator Daniel was a 
perhaps belated representative must remain if the great 
countn,' which he served so well is to continue. Self- 
respect and respect for others, courtesy, consideration, 
sympathy, justice, all the qualities of the older time, 
must be found among the people who govern them- 
selves or their self-government will degenerate into the 
wild scramble that means strife, discord, conflict, and 
disintegration. 

That Virginia has honored and does honor this gentle- 
man of the old time, that this Senate loved him, that our 
country remembers him with grateful appreciation for 
what he was, all argue well for the soundness, the whole- 
someness, the genuine spirit of patriotism that will pre- 
serve all that he represented. Long may it be before the 
life and the influence of that noble race of men of whom 
he was so distinguished an example is forgotten in the 
councils of our Government or in the action of our people. 



[42] 



Address of Mr. Perkins, of California 

Mr. President: 

Friend after friend departs; 

Who liath not lost a friend? 
Tliere is no union here of hearts 

That finds not here an end. 

Mr. President, Senator Daniel's death removed a very 
useful, a very prominent, and a very public-spirited Mem- 
ber of this Chamber and the State of Virginia a very 
distinguished and well-beloved son. 

The warmth of feeling with which he was regarded by 
his fellow citizens was an index of his attitude toward 
them during his entire life, and the sincere grief mani- 
fested at his death by the Members of the Senate indi- 
cates in some measure the feeling which he inspired in 
the hearts of his colleagues. 

In every period of his career Senator Daniel exhibited 
that earnestness, unselfishness, and devotion to what he 
believed to be his highest duty which wins the admira- 
tion and respect of all earnest and thoughtful people. 

During the Civil War his energ>' and talents were 
exerted to the utmost in the cause which called him into 
the field. The wounds he received bore witness to his 
bravery, and the high rank which he attained is evidence 
of his soldierly qualities and military ability. 

After the peace his devotion to his people caused him 
to enter public life, where he demonstrated his unusual 
qualifications for public affairs and earned the respect 
and affection of the people of his State. 

[43] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator Daniel 

As a lawyer he had achieved a very high rank, and in 
certain branches of the law became an authority. 

In Congress he developed to the full all those powers 
of application and persuasion which enable a legislator 
to get at the truth of any subject and to convince those 
who are to deal with it, and in work of this kind his abso- 
lute sincerity and anxiety for that only which is for the 
public good made him a power in the counsels of both 
the House and the Senate. 

In all that he did as a member of the Virginia Legisla- 
ture and as a Member of the Congress of the United States 
he strove earnestlj' and constantly to throw the cloak of 
oblivion over the dark past and to make it plain to all 
that we are citizens of an undivided country, to which is 
due absolute loyalty and that love which all should have 
for the most precious of earthly possessions. 

God grant — 

He once said — 
that the departed era may return no more to our country. 
It is the marvel of the world — 

He again said — 

that so far our unprecedented and unmatched Constitution has 
availed to preserve our inheritance and to keep alive here the 
hope and faith that the future may prove worthy of the past. 

A greater people have never yet appeared upon this globe than 
the Americans, and it must solemnize any just mind to realize the 
responsibility which comes to it with the injunction to take heed 
that no ill befall the Republic. 

The loyalty of Senator Daniel to his country was 
equaled by his loyalty to his State. He was a true Vir- 
ginian, believing in the grand old Commonwealtli with all 
the strength of his generous nature and in its peojile witli 
all the warmth of a great heart. Whatever was for the 
advantage of the Old Dominion, that he advocated and 
Avorked for with all the energy he possessed. 

[44] 



Address of Mr. Pkukins, of California 

Without the enthusiasm which he brouglit to bear in 
the effort to secure the Jamestown Exposition, it is veiy 
doubtful whether it would have received the sanction of 
Congress. I know that many votes for it were secured 
purely through his eloquent advocacy and personal mag- 
netism. He entered upon the contest as though the ques- 
tion were one of vital importance to his State, and he 
brought to bear all the dash and enthusiasm which char- 
acterized him on many a hard-fought battlefield in his 
youth. He won a victoiy for his people, for to him there 
was no such thing as defeat in such a cause. 

For individual Virginians, as well as for the State as a 
whole. Senator Daniel held himself ready to work for any 
good and worthy purpose, and it was through his efforts 
that much has been accomplished in the way of develop- 
ment and the promotion of prosperity. 

As he said of the late Senator Hoar, so may we now 
say of him : 

No man ever said or thought of him that he was the servant of 
personal ambition or of private ends. There are many things in 
heaven and in earth that can not be seen by our eyes or heard by 
our ears or touched by our hands or which are within the pale 
of our sense; more, indeed, "than are dreamed of in your 
philosophy." 

Hence manj' a noble aim may miss its marlc, however clear be 
the eye that discerns, however firm the will that directs, however 
true be the hand that obeys. 

It is only possible to the human to be right in mind and con- 
science and to be sincere in heart. 

So felt the prophet when he said : " Keep thy heart with all 
diligence, for out of it are the issues of life." 

So did Senator Daniel keep his heart. 

He aimed his arrow at wrong wherever he thought he found it. 

He lifted his shield over the right wherever he thought the 
right needed reenforcement. 

It is only in such performance of duty that true glory may be 
found. 

[45] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator Daniel 



No one who knew Senator Daniel could fail to be 
struck with the evidences of his wide reading and pro- 
found reflection. He was a scholar by instinct, habit, 
and training. Whenever he arose to speak he was lis- 
tened to with pleasure and instruction, for he gave the 
results of long and careful study, enriched by gleanings 
from the domain of literature. 

His was the eloquence which we find in the older school 
of statesmen, who strive to clothe their thoughts in the 
rich language of the great masters when felicity of ex- 
pression was sought for as the proper setting for exalted 
ideas. His discourse in private had the same character- 
istics and formed one of his charms in social life. 

I, as well as the rest of his colleagues, was warmly 
attached to him by reason of his genial companionship, 
which had the full flavor of that southern generosity and 
opcn-heartedness which have made the hosp'itality of the 
South proverbial throughout our land. 

In my intercourse with him in the Senate on the Com- 
mittees on Appropriations and Coast Defenses, of which 
we were both members, and in purely social life I found 
him steadfast to those high ideals which he had early set 
up for his guidance, and which had caused him to set a 
striking example to his fellow citizens in war and in 
peace. 

His wide sympathies took in all classes of people and 
all parts of our great country, and he was ever on the 
alert to study conditions new to him and to gather there- 
from ideas that might be made of benefit to all. 

I shall never forget the interest he took in our great 
Pacific coast, when, as my guest in California, he had an 
opportunity to see the land over which the stories of the 
Argonauts has thrown an atmosphere of romance. He 
found there much to remind him of his own loved native 
State, and in the free, generous life of our people he felt 

[46] 



Address of Mr. Perkins, of California 



himself back among the beautiful Virginia mountains and 
valleys. 

We may say of Senator Daniel as he once said in a 
eulogy of a former colleague: 

He was typical of his State, of liis section, and of his party, 
and he was distinctively a Representative in all he stood for. 

Most of the great problems that engaged his thought and effort 
have found their solution through the processes of time, and new 
sails are now seen on the horizon before us. 

As we seek to measure justly the men of the past we do not 
carry into our judgments the partisan feelings which inflamed 
them or their combatants in hours of conflict, for it is the happy 
faculty of a wholesome nature to take men according to the 
circumstances which environed them and according to the 
manner in which they dealt with their own obligations and 
duty. 

Abraham Lincoln said on one occasion that he must confess 
that events had controlled him far more than he had controlled 
events; and if one who was at the head of such mighty power as 
he wielded could feel so sensitively how little any one man can 
do in the great movements of the human race, how much more 
must it be felt by those who play but minor parts in the drama 
that is in their time upon the stage. 

And again: 

The stroke that removes one who has long interwoven his life 
in the work of a great public body, who has bound himself in 
associations of friendship and cooperative tasks with his com- 
panions, who has become a part of the business of many con- 
stituents, who has stood forth as the representative of a great 
State, and as the champion of ideas, and, indeed, has translated 
his being into law and doctrine — such a stroke suddenly snaps 
many ties and dissolves many vistas of pleasant and instructive 
contemplation. 

It must be to many, and it seems to all, as if a landmark of 
memory and hope and faith and aff'ection had suddenly crumbled 
to the dust. 

If we lift our gaze from the tomb of a single one who has 
departed to survey the scene of desolation which a few years 

[47] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator Daniel 

make in the ranks of a body like this, we are well-nigh appalled 
to realize how swiftly and surely death consummates its work 
of change and dissolution. 

In the words he used in acknowledging the worth of a 
former Member of this body, I may say concerning Sen- 
ator Daniel that not only California, " the younger sister 
of Virginia," not only the old 13 States that founded our 
fabric of Government, but all of the 45 American Com- 
monwealths that to-day constitute the Republic, say this 
of him, who so nobly applied it to another: 

He was faithful to truth as he saw it; to duty as he understood 
it; to constitutional liberty as ho conceived it. 

Man sees all things die around him. The bud and the blossom 
die. 

The leaf and the tree die. 

The birds of the air and the fishes of the sea, the creatures of 
the forest and the field and the desert; alike, they die. 

Man, in this respect, is like them, and we see and feel and 
know within ourselves, as did our dying brother, that of a truth 
we die daily. 

The days die and the nights die. 

The weeks and the months and the years and the centuries and 
the seasons die. 

Time itself, even as we call its name and with our every breath, 
dies away from us. 

An eternity without beginning lies behind us — dead. 

A faith so beautifully expressed can not fail to be a 
comfort and an inspiration to those who knew his kindly 
character. When all that was mortal of Senator Daniel 
was deposited in that last peaceful resting place, amidst 
the pines of his native State, how cheering is the thought 
that he believed it to be but the narrow entry to a greater, 
nobler life — eternal in tlie heavens . 



[48] 



Address of Mr. Perkins, of California 

How well could our dear friend say in Tennyson's in- 
comparable verse : 

Sunset and evening star, 

And one clear call for me I 
And may there be no moaning of the bar 

When I put out to sea. 

******* 

Twilight and evening bell, 

And after that the dark! 
And may there be no sadness of farewell 

When I embark; 
And though from out our bourne of time and place 

The flood may bear me far, 
I hope to see my Pilot face to face. 

When I have crossed the bar. 



1004°— 11 4 [49] 



Address of Mr. Simmons, of North Carolina 

Mr. President : Virginia has greatly enriched our coun- 
try by her successive contributions to the eminent men 
who have adorned public life. In his address in com- 
memoration of the landing at Jamestown, President Tyler 
mentions that there came to Virginia in her early days 
many representatives of that landed gentry whose ca- 
pacity and worth had elevated England to her glorious 
position among the nations. Their American descend- 
ants were not unworthy of their lineage. Many scions 
of this persistent stock have budded in Virginia soil and 
blossomed into perfect manhood, and in every generation 
Virginia thought and Virginia life have been ennobled 
by men cast in a superior mold, who compel our admira- 
tion and lead us, while wondering at their talents, to 
seek to emulate their virtues. 

Although but three centuries have as yet elapsed, in 
the long roll of eminent Virginians we can find examples 
of public worth that vie with the most famous charactei-s 
of storied Greece and imperial Rome. 

It was the fortune of our lamented friend, John War- 
wick Daniel, to have brought the list of these illustrious 
Virginians down into our own times. He entered public 
life as the elder statesmen of the Old Dominion were 
passing away, but the names of Tyler, Stuart, Hunter, 
Wise, Baldwin, Conrad, Randolph, Seddon, and other 
distinguished actors in public affairs were still lingering 
on the tongues of men when he came to his work in this 
high forum. He was, like them, bred in the atmosphere 
of the ancient dominion, and feeling the pulsations of 

[50] 



Address of Mr. Simmons, of North Carolina 

the former time. He was nourished in his youth amid 
the influences of the old regime, and like some vigorous 
giant of the forest he threw out his roots deep down into 
the soil of Virginia, and in every fiber he was the product 
of that Commonwealth of high thought and great action 
which have won for her the proud title of mother of 
statesmen. But each generation has its vicissitudes that 
exert a distinctive influence in the formative period of 
character. Like the earlier statesmen following the close 
of the Revolution, Daniel had passed through the fiery 
ordeal of war. Thus it happened that his manhood had 
been perfected in his youth, and his military experiences 
had strengthened his resolution and had imbued him 
with unusual fortitude. So often had he been in immi- 
nent peril, so often had he looked with composure as 
death made havoc on either side and companions fell 
about him, that his very nature became permeated by a 
heroic disregard of all considerations save alone the strict 
performance of personal duty. 

Thrice wounded, he suffered painfully, and although 
he survived, the old wounds of the battle field finally 
hastened him to the grave. 

Trained as a lawyer in association with his estimable 
father. Judge Daniel, he knew none of the arts of shrewd 
pettifoggers, but built on the bedrock of comprehensive 
jurisprudence. Thus, not unnaturally, he became an 
author, and his work on Negotiable Instruments at once 
attests his industry, his juridical learning, and his legal 
acumen. Immediately this valuable compendium of the 
law was received by the courts as authority, and had his 
life then ceased his monument was already erected. 

But Virginia realized his worth, and the most coveted 
honors his people could bestow freely awaited him. 

In 1887, transferred from the House of Representatives 
to this body, he entered on a career honorable not alone 



[51] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator Daniel 

to himself but to the great State whose poHtical tradi- 
tions he so admirably maintained. 

Well equipped, familiar with public questions, with a 
mind trained by exacting study, and richly endowed with 
logical powers, he was at once accorded an enviable posi- 
tion among the distinguished Senators of that period. 

His particular associates— those southern Senators with 
whom naturally he became most intimate — ^had, like him- 
self, been actors in the struggle between the sections, and, 
animated by a large patriotism, were ardently seeking to 
reestablish fraternal relation among the people of the 
Union, while zealously laboring to promote the happi- 
ness and prosperity of the Southern States. 

There were the mighty Vance and the wise Ransom, 
the noble Hampton and the accomplished Butler, the 
brilliant Gordon and still more brilliant Hill, Pugh and 
Morgan, Walthall and George, Gibson and Eustis, Bate 
and Isham G. Harris, Beck and Blackburn, Vest and 
Cockrell, Kenna and Faulkner, Reagan and Bern' — a 
galaxy of representative southerners, uniting shining tal- 
ents with rare excellence of personal character. In their 
midst the accomplished Senator from Virginia found his 
appropriate place, and with them he illustrated in this 
forum those sterling virtues that have long been ascribed 
to the most distinguished of our southern statesmen. 

Four times was he elected a Senator, and the years of 
his service here covered a period of remarkable interest 
in the annals of our countiy. It was while he was giving 
voice to Virginia's patriotism in this Hall that Fitzhugh 
Lee and Wheeler, once Confederates, were leading to 
glorious victory the boys in 1)1 uc on foreign soil, and the 
embers of the long war were finally and forever extin- 
guished. 

Momentous measures constantly arose to claim the 
attention of the statesmen of that period, and Mr. Daniel's 



[52] 



Address of Mr. Simmons, of North Carolina 

positions were always comprehensive, liberal, and pa- 
triotic. He was not merely a representative of Virginia, 
but a Senator of the United States, his great heart beat- 
ing in unison with the mightj' pulsations of the entire 
Nation. 

His fame extended throughout the confines of the 
Union, and his name became a household word at the 
South, and especially in the homes of the people of North 
Carolina. Close to Virginia, North Carolina watched 
with pleasure and with pride the brilliant career of this 
illustrious son of the Old Dominion and cherished for 
him a personal attachment and a particular regard. 

The people of that State were ever in sympathy with 
his positions on public affairs and fully recognized his 
sterling worth and eminent services. 

But as splendid as was his performance in this forum, 
his chief triumph came to him outside of these walls. 

When the Nation's memorial to the immortal Wash- 
ington was finished and an orator was to pronounce the 
eulogium on the great Virginian, Daniel was selected as 
the fittest American of his generation to embody the 
sentiments of his countrymen in harmonious language. 

As an orator he was superb, and on that memorable 
occasion his surpassing eloquence received the plaudits 
of the continent. Indeed, as distinguished as he was as 
a thinker, a man of learning and as a statesman, it was 
as an orator of superlative powei's that he won his highest 
title to fame. He possessed the creative faculty in ex- 
traordinary measure; and, indeed, it might well have 
been of him that Gladstone wrote : 

He has a delicate insight into beautJ^ a refined perception of 
harmony, a faculty of suggestion, an eye both in the physical and 
moral world for motion, light, and color; a sympathetic and close 
observer of nature, a dominance of constructive faculties, and 
that rare gift — the thorough mastery and loving use of his native 
tongue. 

[53] 



Memorial Addeiesses: Senator Daniel 

And how well does this further quotation describe the 
style of his finished addresses : 

It is paramount in the union of ease of movement wltli per- 
spicuity of matter, of both witli real splendor, and of all with 
immense rapidity and striking force. From any other pen such 
masses of ornament would be tawdry, with him they are only 
rich. Like Pascal, he makes the heaviest subject light; like 
Burke, he embellishes the barrenest. When he walks over arid 
plains the springs of milk and honey seem to rise beneath his 
tread. The repast he serves is always sumptuous, but it seems 
to create an appetite proportionate to its abundance. 

As Senator Daniel's distinction was founded on emi- 
nent merit, he wore his honors with graceful ease, and 
with his varied accomplishments there were united a 
generosity and an urbanity of carriage that rendered him 
an agreeable companion. 

He was cordial, genial, bright, always full of hope, 
looking to the future with confidence as if it ever pre- 
sented to his view the rainbow of promise. 

With such a social bearing, intercourse with him easily 
ripened into affectionate regard; and not merely was he 
admired and esteemed, but there was a gentler touch that 
drew his fi'iends close bound to him. 

So that when at length he was detained from his accus- 
tomed place in this Hall and when the sufferings of the 
last daj^s came there was a genuine sympathy felt here 
that penetrated every heart. In that protracted struggle, 
hovering between life and death, he bore himself man- 
fully. There was no falling away. 

His resolution never quailed. His spirit was firm to the 
end. Undaunted he saw that dread vision, which in 
strength and health seems so remote, draw nearer and 
nearer, and without a vain regret he entered on the ex- 
periences of the world bej^ond. Recalling his fortitude 
in that dark hour, may not we, his associates, hold the 



[54] 



Address of Mr. Simmons, of North Carolina 

conviction that not merely was he sustained by the assur- 
ances of that Christian faith whose precepts he observed, 
but that boldly and without fear or misgiving he essayed 
the passage to the bosom of the illimitable ocean of the 
mysterious future well buttressed and buoyed by the 
confident hope expressed by the poet: 

And though from out our bourne of time and place 

The flood may bear me far, 
I hope to see my Pilot face to face, 

When I have crossed the bar. 



[55] 



Address of Mr. Swanson, of Virginia 

Mr. President: It is with profound misgivings that I 
undertake to make a fitting tribute to the character, the 
worth, the achievements, and the genius of the ilhistrious 
la\\yer, oratoi-, statesman, and soldier in whose memory 
these memorial exercises are held. I realize that I can 
but feebly express the great sorrow entertained by the 
people of Virginia at his untimelj^ death, and their deep 
love and admiration, mingled with a profound reverence, 
for his splendid virtues, his varied and brilliant achieve- 
ments. Of all the eminent public men who have adorned 
and illumined the history of Virginia none of them ever 
had a longer career of success and approval; none ever 
retained more continuously the abiding and abounding 
love of her people. He was so intrenched in the confi- 
dence and affection of the people of Virginia that no 
faction dared to assail him, no demands of partisan poli- 
tics could induce even the most reckless and unscrupulous 
to attack him. For more than a decade the clouds and 
storms of party and political strife have been unable to 
reach the lofty heights to which the esteem and the love 
of the Virginia people lifted him. 

In Virginia he stood preeminent; above all others, sur- 
rounded with a halo of universal love, admiration, and 
reverence. He had worthily won this rare, peculiar place 
and this high distinction from his native State. No Vir- 
ginian who ever lived had heart stirred with a purer 
patriotism or thrilled with a deeper love for Virginia than 
Senator Daniel. 

[56] 



Address of Mr. Swanson, of Virginia 

From early manhood to the hour of his death, in peace, 
in war, in the dark hours of her gloom and defeat, this 
devoted son of Virginia firmly, faithfully, and fearlessly 
served her. Virginia's honor was his honor; her wrongs 
were his wrongs; her failures his failures; her success 
was his success. In his deep, passionate nature flamed 
an eternal love for his State. 

Senator Daniel was the very highest type of a Virgin- 
ian; a name synonymous with the most attractive and 
most splendid qualities of human character. Sunshine 
scintillated from everj' lineament of his pleasing face; 
geniality I'adiated from his warm, generous heart; a rare 
knightly courtesy characterized his manly deportment. 
To women he ever extended a deference and reverence 
bespeaking innate refinement and purity. A devoted 
husband and father, a kindly neighbor, a loyal friend, he 
possessed in a marked degree those sterling Anglo-Saxon 
home virtues which have constituted the foundation of 
its greatness and has made it the world's conquering race. 
When interested, his conversational powers, whether on 
light or weighty matters, were unexcelled. His deference 
to and consideration for others were noted and at once 
won the hearts of those with whom he was brought in 
contact. No person whom I have ever seen surpassed 
him in pleasing personality or possessed in a superior 
degree every indication of distinction. His Roman face 
and features of rare and unexcelled beauty ever radiated 
with luminous thought and gleamed with the sunlight of 
genius. These attractive personal traits were adornments 
that gave charm to a strong manly nature. He was a man 
of tireless energy, strong convictions, superb moral and 
physical courage. No misfortune could bring despair to 
his brave and stout heart. No personal sorrow, no gi'eat 
disappointment could retard his dauntless spirit in its 
effort for achievement. Though born and reared amid 

[57] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator Daniel 



all the surroundings of wealth and luxury, yet when the 
misfortunes of Civil War swept all of these away, man- 
fully, cheerfully, he accepted the changed conditions of 
poverty and hardship and struggled to earn a competence 
for himself and others, and with no assistance but what 
came to him from a brave heart and a great mind he 
attained the fame and the prominence which afterwards 
came to him. 

Though defeated twice in his efforts to be governor of 
Virginia and twice in his efforts to become a Member of 
the House of Representatives, yet he did not despair, and 
by his conduct and magnificent bearing in the hours of 
defeat proved himself worthy of success, acquired the 
confidence of the people and captivated their affections 
until he obtained every honor and distinction that Vir- 
ginia could bestow and was elected for five terms as a 
Member of this honorable body. Thus, alike in de- 
feat and in victory, he displayed his preeminence and 
greatness. 

Senator Daniel was a man of positive convictions, and 
without a shadow of turning adhered firmly and steadily 
to his party's tenets. For more than 30 years he was one 
of the ablest and most eloquent defenders of Democratic 
principles in this Nation. On the hustings, in the press, 
in the legislative halls of State and Nation he was the 
bold, brave champion of Democracy — one of its acknowl- 
edged and most beloved leaders. In his early life, when 
rejected repeatedly by the Democratic Party, he manfully 
acquiesced, never sulked or swerved from party fealty. 
He proved himself too good and too great a man to desert 
his people because tliey failed to crown him king. 

Senator Daniel was a man of absolute scrupulous hon- 
esty. A great orator has well said: 

Honesty is the oak around which all other virtues cling, without 
that they fall and groveling die in weeds and dust. 



[58] 



Address of Mr. Swanson, of Virginia 

The paths of his pubHc life were crowded with vast 
power, responsibility, and opportunity, yet no stain ever 
followed his footsteps. His pure clean hands were never 
soiled by the betrayal of public or private trust. 

Senator Daniel was a man of unflinching courage and 
intrepid spii-it. When the war between the States com- 
menced he was a youth of 19 years; yet so ardent was 
his patriotism, so brave his heart, so resolute his will 
that he at once volunteered and was commissioned as a 
second lieutenant in the Twenty-seventh Virginia Regi- 
ment, a part of the Stonewall Brigade. Nothing can be 
more heroic, no picture more striking than that of this 
beardless youth charging with the Twenty-seventh Vir- 
ginia Regiment at the Battle of First Manassas, and aid- 
ing in winning that great victoiy which made the name 
of Stonewall Jackson immortal. I shall ever remember 
the vivid descriptions I have heard him give of his ex- 
periences in this terrific battle — his first baptism in blood 
and war. His gallantry, his courage, his aptitude for 
war soon won him distinction and secured for him rapid 
promotion; he became major and chief of staff for Gen. 
Jubal A. Early. He displayed special skill and gallantry 
as a staff" officer at Boonsboro and at Sharpsburg, the 
fiercest and bloodiest battle of the war. He also rendered 
conspicuous service as chief of Gen. Early's staff in Gen. 
Lee's second invasion of Maryland, which culminated in 
the Battle of Gettysburg. 

During his three years of continuous service in the 
Confederate Army he participated in the campaigns of 
the Army of Northern Virginia, shared all of its priva- 
tions and dangers, fought gallantly in its fierce and stub- 
born battles, winning daily new honors for devotion to 
dutj', for courage and gallantry. During the service he 
received four wounds, the last one being of a serious and 
dangerous nature, which made him a cripple and a suf- 



[59] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator Daniel 

ferer from unremitting pain until his death. On the 6th 
of May, 1864, during the hattle of the Wilderness, recog- 
nizing that an emergency existed and believing that the 
troops needed a mounted officer to lead them on a difficult 
and perilous charge, though it was not his duty, he volun- 
teered, and was gallantly leading the Thirty-third Regi- 
ment of the old Stonewall Brigade when he was dangcr- 
ouslj' wounded, his thigh being shattered by the bullets 
of the enemy. Thus this hero fell wounded while his 
comrades marched on to victory inspired by his gallantry 
and genius. This wound rendered him useless for active 
service in tlie field. But for this wound there is every 
reason to believe that on account of his high reputation, 
his splendid record, his gallantly and genius for war, he 
would very soon have been promoted to brigadier general, 
possibly the youngest in the Confederate Army. 

Thus, while a mere youth, he displayed in a striking 
degree those qualities of energy, quickness of conception 
and action, courage, willing endurance of toil and priva- 
tion, which make a great soldier. His record in the Army, 
his writings and discussions upon militarj' questions, 
indicate that with further opportunity he would have 
attained great success and distinction as a most capable 
soldier. 

Mr. President, the great reputation which he acquired 
in youth as a soldier was but a prelude to the greater 
eminence which afterwards came to him as a la^^'ye^, 
orator, and statesman. In each of these three great de- 
partments of human endeavor he labored successfully 
and acquired great fame. In the great profession of law, 
wliich requires for success discriminating judgment, acute 
intellect, clear and logical reasoning, he early became one 
of the most successful and foremost members of the bar 
of his native State, noted for its able and eminent lawyers. 
In many new and perplexing legal problems presented 



[60] 



Address of Mr. Swanson, of Virginia 

for decision by the courts occasioned by the Civil War 
and the many social and financial upheavals incident 
thereto, he was counsel, and by his legal learning and 
clear reasoning fixed the law governing these cases and 
conditions. His many briefs and arguments presented 
to the court of appeals of his native State on new and 
important legal questions of this character would alone 
constitute a successful life-work of a lawyer. 

Whether addressing court or jury, no one could surpass 
him as an advocate, no one present a case more strongly 
and clearly. No one could work more incessantly and 
without producing fatigue of mind or body. During his 
whole life, when occasion required it, he was the very 
incarnation of tireless work and energy. One has but to 
read the reports of the supreme court of appeals of Vir- 
ginia during the years of his early life, when he was in 
active practice, to obtain evidence of his greatness as a 
lawyer and of the immense and successful practice he 
possessed. 

What is still more remarkable, while actively engaged 
in prosecuting the profession of law, with a large and 
lucrative practice, his spare moments were utilized in 
the preparation of two law textbooks, " Daniel on At- 
tachments " and " Daniel on Negotiable Instruments." 
His latter work, " Daniel on Negotiable Instruments," is 
the best, most complete, and the recognized authority on 
this question, not only in the United States, but also in 
the English-speaking world. It is conceded that Daniel 
on Negotiable Instruments, Cooley on Constitutional Lim- 
itations, and Benjamin on Sales are the three great law 
textbooks of our generation. It is amazing that a young 
man, actively engaged in the practice of law, with an 
immense practice, engaged at the same time in the tur- 
moil and strife of political life, could have found leisure 
to prepare such a textbook on such an intricate subject 



[61] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator Daniel 

of law, containing an immense amount of research and 
a rare combination of detail and generalization, with such 
clearness of expression and breadth of conception as to 
make it an acknowledged authority, and so successful 
that it has gone through repeated editions. It furnishes 
proof of the breadth of his intellect and the brilliance of 
his varied attainments. His legal acquirements were 
such that he would have adorned, with his intellect and 
learning, the Supreme Court of the United States. 

Mr. President, a great lawyer is naturallj' a successful 
and constructive statesman. The historj'^ of the legisla- 
tion of the world exemplifies this. Thus it should occa- 
sion no surprise that Senator Daniel's eminence as a 
lawj'er was equally signalized in his work as a legislator. 
In his native State he served in the house of delegates 
from 1869 to 1871, and in the State senate from 1875 to 
1881, and also in the recent constitutional convention, 
which prepared the present State constitution. He was 
easily the leader in each of these legislative bodies during 
the time he sei'ved. Many of the best and most important 
institutions, many of the wisest and most far-reaching 
laws of the State are the results of his constructive 
handiwork. 

He was one of the pioneers and foremost advocates of 
the establishment of free schools in Virginia, with all of 
their resultant blessings and benefits. He was the author 
of the law in Virginia giving the employees of transporta- 
tion companies the first lien upon the property of the 
companies for their wages and also the law permitting 
the personal representative of a decedent to recover 
damages for the death of the intestant, when occasioned 
by the wrongful act of a corporation. He was the orig- 
inator and the promoter of the measure giving the coun- 
ties, cities, and towns of the Commonwealth power to tax 
the railroads within their borders, which measure alone 



[62] 



Address of Mr. Swanson, of Virginia 

has been the source of inestimable benefit and progress 
to the State. In the last State constitutional convention 
he was the author of the suffrage provision, which was 
finally adopted as a part of the constitution of Virginia, 
and thus he successfully solved the most difficult and 
perplexing problem that confronted the convention. 

Time will not permit me to enumerate the many benefi- 
cent laws which his mind conceived, his hand wrote, and 
he enacted for the betterment of the people of Virginia. 
Suffice it to say that though his services in the legislative 
halls of his State were limited, yet Virginia can point to 
no son whose achievements in State legislation can exceed 
his. 

He served two years in the House of Representatives 
and 23 years as Senator in this honorable body. From 
the day of his entrance here to his death he occupied a 
most prominent position in the deliberations of this body. 
For years he was one of the most influential members of 
the Committee on Foreign Relations of the Senate and 
counseled and controlled as much as anyone our rela- 
tions with foreign nations. He was an active and dis- 
tinguished member of the great Appropriations and 
Finance Committees of the Senate, and thus potential in 
all matters affecting the appropriations and revenues of 
the Government. His many able and eloquent speeches 
upon constitutional questions, control and regulation of 
railways, restraint of trusts and combinations of capital, 
currency and banking, tariff" taxes, other various ques- 
tions of taxation, and many other subjects, clearly indi- 
cate the extensive scope of his research, intellect, and 
ability. Upon all the important questions that came be- 
fore the Senate during his service, in just conception, in 
thorough study, in full realization of the important and 
far-reaching bearings, he was excelled by none. 



[63] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator Daniel 

By his services in tlie Senate he acquired a national 
reputation for statesmanship, abilitj', courage of convic- 
tions, and soundness of judgment. The esteem and ad- 
miration entertained for him were coextensive with our 
National Government. If he had lived in some other 
section of this counti-y besides the South many years ago 
he would have been nominated on the Democratic ticket 
for the Presidency, with splendid chances of success. He 
possessed those qualities of mind, heart, and will which 
would have made a great President — fit company for the 
illustrious Virginians who had so well filled this high and 
exalted position. At the Chicago convention in 1896, so 
profound and extensive was the esteem and admiration 
of the Democratic Party for him that he could easily 
have had the nomination for Vice President if he would 
have accepted it. He unselfishly waved this honor aside 
for what he believed was to the best interest of his party. 

In all that constitutes true, broad statesmanship Sen- 
ator Daniel was preeminently endowed, and if Virginia 
had been as potential in tliis Nation as she was in former 
times, possessing as he did the universal confidence and 
admiration of his native State, he would have attained 
position as high and influence as great as tliat wielded by 
the illustrious Virginians in the early days of this Re- 
public. In character and capacity he measured up to 
these great men. 

Mr. President, as great and varied as were these endow- 
ments, yet nature had given him other gifts richer and 
rarer. He possessed the divine power of eloquence. He 
gave new graces to speech; taught new charms to elo- 
quence. His brilliant, flashing eyes, his stirring, musical 
voice, his apt and beautiful gestures, his exquisite, expres- 
sive features, beaming with fire, intelligence, and genius, 
gave him a charm and power of oratory rarely surpassed. 
He was equally the master of pathos and humor. He could 



[64] 



Address of Mk. Swanson, of Virginia 

reason with irresistible logic to the court and afterwards 
easily draw tears from the jui-y by a passionate appeal. 
He was equally at home in the rough and tumble conflicts 
on the hustings or in the dignified debates of the Senate. 
He could deliver a literary address of great beauty and 
elegance and afterwards discuss a great constitutional 
question with a majestic flow of thought and intellect. 
His literary taste was unexcelled; his illustrations original 
and impressive; his diction pure and classic. His ad- 
dresses were broadly and splendidly conceived and beau- 
tifully executed. 

His addresses unveiling the Lee monument at Lexing- 
ton, Va., and the Washington Monument in this city are 
masterpieces, and will be read and studied as long as 
eloquence is cherished. These two orations, in beauty of 
conception and expression, are equal to any of his gen- 
eration. His address upon the Battle of Gettysburg in 
vividness, clearness, and eloquence of description can 
not be surpassed. His addresses upon the life and char- 
acter of Jefferson Davis and to the Congress of the 
United States commemorating the centennial of the 
building of Washington would alone place him in the 
first rank as an orator. Though his lips are now silent, 
he will eloquently speak to generations yet to come in 
the splendid classical orations which will be preserved 
as a part of the best specimens of the eloquence of his 
generation. 

Mr. President, these many and varied brilliant qualities 
were combined with a great soundness of judgment and 
great political sagacity. Ere he attained the age of 
40 he became the acknowledged leader of the Virginia 
Democracy, which position he held unimpaired and un- 
disputed until his death. So wise was his counsel, so 
sagacious his judgment, that in all these years of leader- 
ship he never lost but one political battle, and that was in 



1004° — 11- 



[65] 



Memorial Addresses : Senator Daniel 

1881, which defeat he quickly repaired, and from that 
time on he led his party to continuous victories and tri- 
umphs. For the last 30 years he drew nearly every plat- 
form of the Democratic Party of his State. Thus beneath 
his brilliant, shining qualities were embedded great pru- 
dence, judgment, and wisdom. These qualities enabled 
him to successfully encounter great political storms and 
upheavals, and be honored with the rare distinction of 
being elected five times to this honorable body practically 
without opposition. 

Mr. President, the character of Senator Daniel and the 
natural aspect of his native State always to me seem to 
have a strange and striking conformity. Virginia is 
largely composed of rich, fertile fields; large and broad 
plains, decorated with lull and mountain scenery of sur- 
passing beauty. So with this great son. He was en- 
dowed with a strong, broad, masculine mind and heart, 
sparkling with the fascinations of a charming personality 
and glittering with the coruscations of eloquence and 
genius. 

Sirs, the greatest of all English novelists in his master- 
piece, " Vanity Fail'," has truly said: 

The world is a looking-glass and casts back to each man the 
reflection of his own face; if he smiles upon the world, it smiles 
upon him; if he frowns upon it, it frowns upon him; if he hates 
it, it hates him; if he loves it, it loves him. 

How profoundly is this truth illustrated in the mag- 
nificent career of this distinguished soldier, la\\'>'er, states- 
man, orator, and leader! He faced the world with a 
genial, tender smile and it received him with open, lov- 
ing arms. He loved humanity and he lived and died the 
idol of his people. He trusted the people, and with im- 
plicit confidence his people, with loving faith, placed 
their hands in his and followed his leadership and guid- 



[66] 



Address of Mr. Swanson, of Virginia 



ancc. His people showered upon him great honors and 
important trusts. 

Well might we of Virginia feel a pardonable pride and 
a laudable love and admiration for our famous soldier 
boy, our eminent la^^7er, our illustrious statesman, our 
brilliant orator, our sagacious leader! 

Mr. President, Carlyle in his splendid essay on Voltaire 
has truthfully said : 

The life of every man is as the wellspring of a stream, whose 
small beginnings are, indeed, plain to all, but whose ultimate 
course and destination as it winds through the expanse of infinite 
years only the Omniscient can discern. Will it mingle with the 
neighboring rivulets as a tributary, or receive them as their sov- 
ereign? Is it to be a nameless brook, and will its tiny waters 
among millions of other brooks and rills increase the current of 
some world-famed river? Or is it to be itself a Rhine, a Danube, 
an Amazon, whose goings forth are to the utmost lands, its floods 
an everlasting boundary line of the globe, itself the bulwark and 
highway of whole kingdoms and continents? 

As to which a man's life shall be, whether a tiny stream, 
giving the current of its life to others, or a magnificent 
river, receiving the waters of smaller rivulets, depends 
largely upon one's talents and opportunities, but more 
than all else upon one's efforts, will, and ambition. Sen- 
ator Daniel, possessing high qualities of mind and splen- 
did talents, aspiring and ambitious, chose to make and did 
make the stream of his life as it ran with its pure waters 
to the great eternal ocean a large and majestic river, 
known far and wide, fertilizing broad fields, enriching 
States, and carrying on its bosom rich treasure for his 
country and mankind. It is by the lives and sacrifices 
of such men that States and nations are made strong and 
great. 



[67] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator Daniel 

A poet has well expressed it : 

What builds a nation's pillars high, 
What makes it great and strong? 

What makes it miglity to defj' 
The foes that 'round it throng? 

Not gold, but only men can make 

A nation great and strong; 
Men, who for truth and honor's sake. 

Hold still and suffer long. 

Brave men, who work while others sleep. 
Who dare when others sigh; 

They build a nation's pillars deep 
And lift it to the sky. 



[68] 



Address of Mr. Money, of Mississippi 

Mr. President: Shakespeare in speaking of a great 
contemporary poet condensed a volume of eulogy into 
four words — 

O rare Ben Jonson. 

I could say as justly, " O rare John Daniel." In ad- 
vanced thought and in thorough appreciation of the in- 
tellectual development of the age he was among the first 
men of his time, but in certain phases of character he was 
an anachronism. He lived in an age that is past, when 
to be a gentleman was above all title and all place. With- 
out any taint of the commercial spirit of the age, without 
a disposition to extravagance in living, it may be said of 
him as once was said of a great British secretary — " mod- 
ern degeneracy had not reached him." 

The oratory of John Daniel was of the ornate sort as to 
the vehicle, and the ideas it conveyed were profound. It 
was said of Edmund Burke, whose oratory made him the 
master of the British House at the age of 34, that his elo- 
quence was always captivating, but not always convincing. 
Daniel could convince as well as charm, and while the 
oratory is not always logical it is well to remember that 
his great book, Daniel on Negotiable Instruments, is the 
authority at home and in English-speaking courts abroad, 
and that book could have been the product only of a 
great logical mind. I mention him with Burke, because 
to me they seem more nearly than any other two moderns 

[69] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator Daniel 

in the splendor of their rhetoric and in the force of their 
ideas to appi'oach the " melodious thunder of TuUy's 
eloquence." 

Daniel was a proud man, without vanity; a proud man 
in the sense that he never forfeited his self-respect by 
doing a mean, a small, or an ungenerous thing. Respecting 
himself, he expected to receive the respect of every man; 
and he was not disappointed. Daniel never talked loud 
and never talked about anybody. He was exceedingly 
chary in expressing his opinion of men, and while enjoy- 
ing an intimacy with him of which I am proud, I never 
heard him speak disparagingly of anyone. When he 
gave an opinion it was always in the most temperate 
language. 

He was reserved in his manner, although exercising 
always the utmost courtesy — the politeness of a well-bred 
man toward everyone who came in contact with him, 
whether they were great or small. No man was of 
increased importance on account of official position or 
wealth in his estimation. He was not disposed to make a 
show of his opinions, and much less of his emotions. He 
was not a talkative man; but when much interested he 
spoke with beauty and force. Beneath his reserve he was 
a man of the warmest affections and the strongest feelings. 

His afflictions, which were great, were not generally 
known to the world. He did not expose his misfortunes 
and challenge sympathy. He wanted no man's pity, no 
man's commiseration. Self-reliant, he received the shocks 
of grief and the misfortunes that came to him with a com- 
posure that was no index to the feeling within. 

I doubt if any man in this Senate, at any time, was ever 
more respected by all, admired by many, and most deeply 
loved by a few. He could not be promiscuous in the 
relations of friendship; he treated all with courtesy, but 
few were admitted into his heart. 

[70] 



Address of Mr. Money, of Mississippi 

The groat State which her own citizens love to call the 
" Old Dominion " has been generous in her gifts to this 
Nation in her great men in the highest standard of charac- 
ter, and in her State institutions. Among her generous 
gifts there is none that was richer than John Warwick 
Daniel. 

He may have been said to have had within himself the 
accumulation of generations of talents. His father and 
his grandfather were orators, great lawyers, and judges 
of the supreme court of Virginia. His grandfather's 
cousin was an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of 
the United States. He might well have been descended 
from an English poet laureate of the sixteenth century, 
to whom admiring critics gave the unique title of " Well- 
languaged Daniel." 

His worth was early discovered, and he was called suc- 
cessively to the lower and upper house of the Assembly 
of Virginia, where he distinguished himself by his devo- 
tion to popular rights and his sagacious forethought. 

When quite a young man he was nominated for gov- 
ernor of Virginia, and made one of the most brilliant 
campaigns in the history of that State. Daniel consid- 
ered this a fight for the honor of Old Virginia, and with 
his punctilious ideas of honor he looked upon the read- 
justment of Virginia's debt as an assault by a part of her 
citizens upon her good name. He entered the campaign 
with an honorable ambition of preserving the escutcheon 
of his State from blemish, and with the real gaudia cer- 
taminis he entered the fight eager to end the quarrel by 
" push of pike and stroke of sword." 

While he was defeated yet he reaped an abundant 
reward, for he was selected, and forever, as the popular 
hero and favorite of his State, to whom no honor in the 
future was to be denied. 



[71] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator Daniel 

Senator Daniel was, in one sense, a bookworm — a man 
who read at eveiy opportunity a busy practical life per- 
mitted. He loved books; they were his treasures, and he 
found a charm in them which was known to few men. 
His thorough learning was acknowledged by two great 
institutions, the Washington and Lee University and the 
University of Michigan awarding him the degree of 
doctor of laws. 

Soon after our acquaintance began Daniel became to 
me a curious study. He was unlike anyone else whom I 
knew. The deep respect I had for his character and 
abilities soon ripened into a warm and affectionate friend- 
ship, and, counting many friends whom I love, no one 
could be more sadly missed by me than this heroic and 
gentle soul. 

"After life's fitful fever he sleeps well," and in that 
other and better place or condition of the soul's exist- 
ence, where the good and the great of this world are 
associated eternally, there will be found John Warwick 
Daniel. 

Mr. Thornton. Mr. President, I move, as a further mark 
of respect to the memory of Mr. Daniel and Mr. McEnery, 
that the Senate do now adjourn. 

The motion was unanimously agreed to, and (at 5 
o'clock and 45 minutes p. m.) the Senate adjourned until 
to-morrow, Tuesday, February 21, 1911, at 12 o'clock 
meridian. 



[72] 



Proceedings in the House 

December 5, 1910. 
Mr. Jones. Mr. Speaker, I offer the following resolutions. 
The Speaker. The gentleman from Virginia offers the 
following resolutions, which the Clerk will report. 
The Clerk read as follows : 

Resolved, That the House has heard with profound sorrow of 
the death of Hon. John Warwick Daniel, late a Senator of the 
United States from the State of Virginia. 

Resolved, That the Qerk communicate these resolutions to the 
Senate, and transmit a copy thereof to the family of the deceased 
Senator. 

The resolutions were agreed to. 

Mr. Ransdell of Louisiana. Mr. Speaker, I offer the 
following resolution. 

The Speaker. The gentleman from Louisiana offers a 
resolution, which the Clerk will report. 

The Clerk read as follows : 

Resolved, That as a further mark of respect to the memory of 
the deceased Senators and Representatives the House do now 
adjourn. 

The resolution was agreed to. Accordingly (at 12 
o'clock and 49 minutes p. m.), the House adjourned until 
12 o'clock noon to-morrow. 



[73] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator Daniel 



Friday, June 9, iOii. 

Mr. Flood of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous 
consent for the present considei'ation of the order which 
I send to the Clerk's desk and ask to liave read. 

The Speaker. The gentleman from Virginia asks unani- 
mous consent for the present consideration of the order 
which the Clerk will read. 

The Clerk read as follows : 

Ordered, That Saturday, the 24th day of June, 1911, at 12 o'clock 
noon, be set apart for addresses on the life, character, and public 
services of Hon. John Warwick Daniel, late a Senator from the 
State of Virginia. 

The Speaker. Is there objection? [After a pause.] The 
Chair hears none, and it is so ordered. 



Saturday, June 24, 1911. 
The House met at 12 o'clock noon. 

The Chaplain, Rev. Henry N. Couden, D. D., offered the 
following prayer : 

Eternal God, our heavenly Father, above all, through 
all, and in all, to quicken, to inspire, to guide, amid the 
conflicting elements, the profound problems, the strenu- 
ous duties which appeal to every serious, strong-minded, 
noble-hearted man, we thank Thee for the special order 
of the day in memory of such a man who met life and its 
problems with the courage and fortitude of a great soul 
and distinguished himself wherever he was called to 
serve — on the field of battle, at the bar of justice, in the 
legislative halls of State and Nation. Quick to perceive, 



[741 



Proceedings in the House 



clear of judgment, wise in counsel, strong in action, elo- 
quent of speech, a leader of men; patient, gentle, easy of 
approach, a friend of the friendless, a follower of the 
King of men; respected, honored, loved by all who knew 
liim; called from a life of usefulness with a character full 
rounded out, a passport to the realms of eternal life; we 
thank Thee for what he was and for what he did, and we 
pray that his example may inspire us and those who shall 
come after us to earnest endeavor and purity of purpose. 
Be graciously near to all who mourn him, especially the 
bereaved wife and children, to uphold, sustain, and com- 
fort them in the blessed promises of the gospel. And 
glory and honor and praise be Thine forever, through 
Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. 

The Speaker. The Clerk will report the special order 
of the day. 

The Clerk read as follows : 

On motion by Mr. Flood of Virginia, by unanimous consent, 
Ordered, That Saturday, the 24th day of June, 1911, at 12 o'clock 
noon, be set apart for addresses on the life, character, and public 
services of Hon. John Warwick Daniel, late a Senator from the 
State of Virginia. 

The Speaker. The gentleman from Virginia [Mr. Flood] 
will please take the chair. 

Mr. Flood of Virginia assumed the chair as Speaker pro 
tempore. 

Mr. Jones. Mr. Speaker, I ask for the adoption of the 
resolution which I send to the Clerk's desk and ask to have 
read. 

The Clerk read as follows: 

Resolved, That the business of the House be now suspended 
that opportunity may be given for the tribute to the memory of 
Hon. John W. Daniel, late a Senator from the State of Virginia. 



[75] 



Memoriai. Addresses: Senator Daniel 

Resolved, That as a further mark of respect to the memory of 
the deceased, and in recognition of his eminent ability and illus- 
trious public services, the House, at the conclusion of these memo- 
rial services, shall adjourn. 

Resolved, That the Clerk communicate these resolutions to the 
Senate. 

Resolved, That the Clerk be instructed to send a copy of these 
resolutions to the family of the deceased. 

The Speaker pro tempore. The question is on agreeing 
to the resolutions. 

The question was taken, and the resolutions were 
agreed to. 



[76] 



MEMORIAL ADDRESSES 



Address of Mr. Jones, of Virginu 

Mr. Speaker : In the death of John Warwick Daniel the 
Commonwealth of Virginia has lost her most beloved as 
well as her most eminent citizen, the Senate of the United 
States one of its most honored and distinguished Mem- 
bers, the South a loyal and devoted son, and the country 
at large a statesman whose patriotic endeavors were 
neither circumscribed by party lines nor confined to any 
section of the American Republic. 

We are met to-day for the purpose of paying sincere 
tribute to the memory and fame of this great Virginian. 

Although I enjoyed for many years the high privilege 
of his personal acquaintance and friendship and was asso- 
ciated with him more or less intimately in the discharge 
of those political and public functions in which we had 
a like interest, and although in common with every other 
Vii'ginian I feel the keenest pride in his brilliant career 
and stainless life, I am not unmindful of my inability to 
do justice to a subject so well worthy the loftiest expres- 
sions of praise and eulogy. For this reason I shall only 
attempt a brief sketch, a bare outline, of a life which is 
destined to fill many of the brightest pages of the history 
of a State which has given to the world so many preemi- 
nently great and noble men. To those who shall follow 

[77] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator Daniel 

me I shall leave the pleasing task of portraying his char- 
acter and recounting his achievements. 

For more than 40 years, many of them the most event- 
ful in its history. Senator Daniel was a conspicuous figure 
in the life of Virginia. For more than half of this period 
he occupied a seat in the Senate of the United States, 
where he served his State and countiy with singular 
ability and won for himself great distinction and endur- 
ing fame. 

He was born in Lynchburg, Va., on the 5th day of Sep- 
tember, 1842, and there, after an illness which covered 
inany sad and weary months, he entered into the Great 
Beyond on the evening of the 29th of June, 1910. His 
biographers tell us he came of a family greatly distin- 
guished in the annals of Virginia, and this is easy of 
belief for those of us who were so fortunate as to be 
brought into personal contact with him, and who were 
thus afforded the opportunity to observe his innate refine- 
ment, his charming manners, and his courtly and digni- 
fied bearing. His father, William Daniel, jr., sat for 
many years upon the bench of the Supreme Court of 
Appeals of Virginia, and enjoys the reputation of having 
been a just, learned, and incorruptible judge. His grand- 
father, William Daniel, sr., was also a jurist of higli char- 
acter and enviable repute, so that Senator Daniel may be 
said to have been born to the profession of which, in after 
life, he was so eminent a member and which he so con- 
spicuousl}' adorned. 

His education was received at the private schools of 
Lynchburg, at Lynchburg College, and at the famous 
university school so long conducted by that distinguished 
educator. Prof. Gessner Harrison. 

He was but 18 and yet at school when the tocsin of war 
between the States was sounded. Instantly he laid down 
his studies, and promptly — yea, even joyouslj' — he 

[78] 



Addrkss of Mr. Jones, of Virginia 



enlisted as a private soldier in a cavalry company raised 
and organized in Lynchburg. This command had seen 
no service in the field when young Daniel received a 
second lieutenant's commission from the governor of Vir- 
ginia and was assigned to the Twenty-seventh Virginia 
Infantry Regiment, of which he subsequently became the 
adjutant, and with which he sei'ved with distinction in 
the first battle of Manassas. In this, the first of the many 
bloody conflicts in which he participated, he received 
three wounds, one of which came dangerously near to 
permanently disabling him, although such was his 
intrepid spirit that only a short period elapsed before he 
was again with his command and at the front. 

Having been elected adjutant of the Eleventh Virginia 
Regiment of Infantry, he served with this command until 
March, 1863, participating in all the bloody conflicts in 
which up to that time it was engaged. At Boonsboro, in 
September, 1862, he was again wounded and temporarily 
disabled, but so wonderful were his recuperative powers 
and youthful vigor that within 90 days he again reported 
for duty on the firing line. 

At the conclusion of his service with this command he 
was commissioned adjutant general and assigned to duty 
upon the staff of Gen. Jubal A. Early, where he served 
with conspicuous gallantry and marked efficiency until, 
on May 5, 1864, at the Battle of the Wilderness, he received 
the cruel wound which left him a cripple for life, and on 
account of which, in after years, in love and admiration, 
his people conferred upon him the proud title of the 
" Lame Lion of Lynchburg." 

The war over, this maimed and battle-scarred young 
hero, with unshaken courage and undaunted spirit, began 
his preparation for the battle of life — that stern conflict 
in which he was destined to win gi'cat civic victories — by 
entering the law school of the University of Virginia. 



[79] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator Daniel 

Having completed his law course at this famous institu- 
tion of learning, he at once began the practice of the 
profession in which he rose rapidly to distinction. 

Others have spoken elsewhere, and others still will 
speak here, of his brilliant career as a lawyer. I may 
only say that his forensic triumphs were many and great, 
that he was not only distinguished as a practitioner of 
the law, but that he contributed abundantly to the juris- 
prudence of his country. His book, " Daniel on Nego- 
tiable Instruments," is justly regarded by the legal pro- 
fession as a work of great merit and recognized authority, 
and had he bequeathed to posterity no other evidence of 
his high legal attainments, his reputation as a lawyer 
would rest secure upon this single production of his great 
brain. 

But great lawyer as Senator Daniel unquestionably was, 
he will be remembered chiefly by the people of his State as 
an orator who was without a rival in his day and genera- 
tion. He loved his profession and never wholly withdrew 
from its practice, although early in his career he seems to 
have realized that it was too narrow a field for the display 
of his great and varied mental powers. 

Moreover, he had scarcely begun the practice of the law 
when it became apparent to him that the State for which 
he had so often risked his life upon the battle field again 
stood in need of his services. As a result of the war 
many of her civil institutions had been swept away, and 
now her very civilization was seriously threatened. To 
rescue that civilization from the perils with which it was 
beset, the corrupt and deadlj^ influences by which it was 
surrounded, and to restore to the real people of Virginia 
the instrumentalities of civil government and the guar- 
anties of peace and social order was the herculean task 
to which young Daniel, and the noble band of devoted 
men with whom he was associated, resolutely and cou- 



[80] 



Address of Mh. Jones, of Virginia 



rageously addressed themselves. In the memorable 
struggle which followed, a contest between virtue and 
intelligence upon the one side and vice and ignorance 
upon the other, the soul-stirring eloquence of John W. 
Daniel was heard from the mountains to the sea. And 
thus early he entered upon that splendid political career 
which continued for more than 40 years, and which was 
only terminated when he was smitten by the hand of 
death. 

Commencing in 1869, he faithfully served the people 
of the city of Lynchburg and of Campbell County in the 
State legislature, at first in the house of delegates and 
afterwards in the senate, for a period of 10 years. 

In the year of 1881 he became the candidate of the 
Democratic Party for the governorship of Virginia. His 
opponent was the erudite and accomplished William E. 
Cameron, who, like himself, had behind his candidacy a 
brilliant record as a Confederate soldier. The overshad- 
owing issue was one that related to the settlement of the 
State's public indebtedness. Cameron was the nominee 
of what was then known as the readjuster party. The 
campaign which followed was a memorable one, perhaps 
the most memorable in the political annals of the State, 
but from the outset the result was a foregone conclusion. 

This was the only defeat, if defeat it may really be said 
to have been, which John W. Daniel ever sustained at 
the hands of the people of Virginia. He came out of the 
contest the idol of his party. Henceforth he was without 
a rival in its affections. 

Three years later he was elected to membership in this 
body from the Lynchburg district, but before he had 
completed his term of service he was chosen for the seat 
in the United States Senate, which he continued uninter- 
ruptedly to occupy up to his death. 



1004°— 11 6 [81] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator Daniel 

The actual senalorial service of this great patriot and 
statesman covered a period of more than 23 years, but he 
had been reelected to succeed himself for still another 
term, and so firmly enthroned was he in the hearts of the 
people of Virginia that it was quite universally conceded 
that the exalted position which he had so long adorned 
was to be his until his life's end. 

The length of the service in the Senate of the United 
States of no other Virginian ever approached that of 
John W. Daniel. In the earlier days of the Republic 
Richard Henry Lee, James Monroe, and John Randolph 
of Roanoke, had represented the " Mother of States and 
of statesmen " in that great body, and later on their places 
had been taken and long occupied by James M. Mason 
and R. M. T. Hunter, but no one of these greatly honored 
and justly distinguished Virginians served for half so 
long a period as the six terms for which John W. Daniel 
was successively chosen. This fact strongly attests the 
extent to whicli the confidence of the people of Virginia 
was reposed in him. That by no word or deed of his was 
that confidence ever for one moment shaken is a tribute 
as great as it is rare to the high efficiency of the public 
services, the purity of the patriotism, and the sublimity 
of the character of this splendid specimen of supei'b man- 
hood. 

His achievements in the world of politics were phe- 
nomenal. A mere recital of the many honors which a 
grateful people have heaped upon him show that not 
since the early days of the Republic has any other Vir- 
ginian been so distinguished by public and political pre- 
ferment. His brilliant career has been absolutely unique 
in the recent political history of Virginia. And yet, to 
his everlasting honor be it said, these distinctions and 
honors came to him as the well-earned rewards of splen- 
did services rendered his State and country both in war 



[82] 



Address of Mr. Jones, of Virginia 



and in peace, and in no single instance as the result 
of astute political manipulation and management. His 
steady and continuous advancement into public favor was 
due to no factitious circumstances. The love and esteem 
of a great and noble people can only be won and perma- 
nently retained by those whose lives and deeds have been 
such as to merit popular favor and to deserve a people's 
trust and confidence. 

From the first hour of his public service to the last 
moment of his life the great powers of Senator Daniel's 
superb intellect were consecrated to his countiy. He died 
as he had lived, in the full and perfect enjoyment of the 
love and confidence of the whole people of a great State, 
to the preservation of whose civil and political institu- 
tions and the advancement of whose highest and best 
interests he had dedicated the noblest endeavors of mind 
and of body. His precious memory will live long in the 
hearts of the people of Virginia, and his great and good 
deeds will ever remain a rich heritage to his descendants 
and his country. 



[83] 



Address of Mr. Ransdell, of Louisiana 

Mr. Speaker: I had the pleasure of only a slight ac- 
quaintance with Senator Daniel. We lived at the same 
hotel, and while I saw him frequently I rarely had an op- 
portunity to converse with him. He was one of the most 
courtl}', accomplished gentlemen I ever had the pleasure 
of meeting. He had a wonderful charm in conversation, 
and drew men to him in ordinary social intercourse by 
the same spell of magnetism with which he swayed the 
largest audiences. The characteristic that appealed most 
to me in this gentleman was the simplicity and natural- 
ness of his manners, his earnestness, and the apparent 
goodness of his heart. It seemed to me, Mr. Speaker, that 
his good heart shone out of his eyes as strongly' as I ever 
knew it to shine in any human countenance. 

An incident was related to me not long ago by one of 
his friends, a man who loved him, that shows I was not 
wrong in this estimate of his goodness. Senator Daniel 
once had a negro servant named Peter White, who was 
taken very sick some time after leaving his service. The 
Senator found it out accidentallj', called on Peter, and 
saw that everj' attention and comfort was given to him. 
He called not once but several times on this poor colored 
man, and in doing so had to climb a steep flight of stairs. 
When you bear in mind that he was a cripple and always 
went on crutches it is apparent how much it meant to 
him to visit a poor sick man under those circumstances. 

Mr. Speaker, we love and honor this great man for his 
splendid qualities as soldier, orator, law writer, states- 
man, but to my mind he never did a nobler thing nor one 

[84] 



Address of Mr. Ransdell, of Lofisiana 



which reflects greater credit upon his memory than the 
attention shown by him in his quiet, unobtrusive way to 
that poor servant. That was the act of a true man; that 
act showed the heart; and I repeat, sir, it was better than 
all his other great deeds. 

I had the pleasure of hearing only one of Senator 
Daniel's orations. It was delivered in this Hall about 
eight years ago on the occasion of the celebration of the 
one hundredth anniversary of the removal of this Capital 
to this citj'. The President and his Cabinet were here, 
the members of the Supreme Court, all the foreign lega- 
tions, the Senate and the House of Representatives, and 
the galleries were packed to their very limit. I never 
saw a more distinguished audience. There were a num- 
ber of speakers and the program was very long. When 
Senator Daniel arose it was about 5 o'clock, and be held 
that great audience spellbound for nearly an hour. His 
address was carefully prepared and read from manu- 
script, but he delivered it so gracefully, with such a pleas- 
ing elocution, that I doubt if the average person knew 
that he was referring to notes. To me, sir, that was the 
most marvelous oration to which I ever listened; and 
when he finished, the greatest tribute of praise that I ever 
heard given by one man to another was paid to Senator 
Daniel by the late Senator Hoar, of Massachusetts. It 
was about 6 o'clock when Senator Daniel's address con- 
cluded. Many in that vast audience had engagements, 
and fully one-half of them arose and left the room. Sen- 
ator Hoar advanced to the front of the platform, folded 
his arms, and stood looking on them as they fded out of 
the room. When the last one had gone, leaving about 
one-half of the audience present, he said, in his sweet, 
mellow tones, " Unhappy is he who cometh after a king." 

Mr. Speaker, that was a beautiful tribute, and a truth- 
ful one, for he was to follow a great king of oratory. A 



[85] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator Daniel 

wonderful oration had been delivei-ed by Senator Daniel 
and no one appreciated it better than Senator Hoar, him- 
self a fine speaker. 

The last votes cast by Senator Daniel in the Hall of the 
Senate were during the discussions on the Payne-Aldrich 
tarifl' bill two years ago. There was no stancher Demo- 
crat in the Union than John W. Daniel. He voted against 
that bill as a whole, because he believed it unjust in many 
respects; but when the question of a duty upon lumber 
was presented, in preparing the different schedules, he, 
along with the majority of his colleagues on the Demo- 
cratic side, voted in favor of it. He believed such a vote 
necessary to place that great product of the South on a 
par with many other articles which were then being legis- 
lated upon, and he thought that free lumber in such a bill 
as that would be a most unfair discrimination against the 
South. 

Mr. Speaker, I, in common with a number of other good 
Democrats in this Chamber, had cast a similar vote when 
that question was before us. And I assure you, sir, that 
I was a happjf man when I saw the great Daniel and 
many other of our honored leaders in the Senate take the 
same position there which many of us had taken here. 

Senator Daniel was a success in every walk of life. 
He gained renown as a soldier before he was 20 years of 
age. Starting as a private, he became a major before he 
was 20, and doubtless would have risen much higher had 
not an unfortunate bullet at the Battle of the Wilderness 
given him an awful wound, that caused him to go on 
crutches the remainder of his life. He was one of the 
best lawyers the State of Virginia ever produced. He 
was a great law writer. His book on " Negotiable Instru- 
ments " made Daniel known and honored by thousands 
of young lawj'ers all over the country before they ever 
heard of John W. Daniel the orator, the Senator, and the 



[86] 



Addhess or Mr. Ransdell, of Louisiana 



statesman. And this great work will extend his fame for 
ages. 

His record as a statesman is one that his country will 
ever recall with pride. As an orator he occupies the very 
front rank of American public speakers. I doubt if any 
man in our history since the days of the immortal trium- 
virate— Calhoun, Clay, and Webster — was his superior 
as an orator. 

Mr. Speaker, this great man was loved and honored 
throughout the Republic. His memory is a precious heri- 
tage not only to Virginia but to the entire counti-y. I 
think, sir, that we may well say of him, paraphrasing 
somewhat the famous aphorism about Washington, that 
John W. Daniel was brave in battle, great in every art of 
peace, and loved by all his countrymen. 



[87] 



Address of Mb. Clark, of Missouri 

Mr. Speaker: From the beginning Virginia has been 
rich in great men — great statesmen, great orators, great 
jurists, great soldiers. So long as the world exists the 
names of her illustrious sons will be among the noblest 
on fame's eternal beadroll. 

Patrick Henry precipitated the Revolution; Thomas 
Jefferson penned the Declaration; George Washington 
made that Declaration good on Yorktown's blood-stained 
heights; James Madison was "father of the Constitution"; 
and John Marshall its chief expounder. Her bill of rights, 
written by George Mason, has been considered a model 
for more than a century and a quarter. These were fol- 
lowed by a long line of men, distinguished in peace and 
in war, whose records are among the precious treasures 
of the Republic. 

John Warwick Daniel ranks high among Virginia's 
worthies. So far as the public is concerned, he appeared 
in a fourfold character — soldier, lawyer, author, orator. 
The universal testimony of his companions in arms is 
that he was a fine soldier. His bi-ethren of the Virginia 
bar bear witness that he was a successful practitioner of 
the noblest of professions. Lawyei"s and courts every- 
where cite his law books as standard authorities. All the 
world knows that he was one of the foremost orators of 
his time, and it is his oratoi-y more than anything else or 
all things else which will perpetuate his fame to coming 
generations. He was richly blessed with the divine gift 
of moving men's minds and hearts by the power of spoken 
words. He was lavishly endowed by nature with the ele- 
ments and qualities which constitute an orator. Some 

[88] 



Address or Mr. Clark, of Missoiri 



men are so ugly and ungainly that it is a positive advan- 
tage to them as public speakers by reason of the pleasur- 
able surprise which their eloquence creates. Others are 
so handsome and prepossessing that they win the hearts 
of their audience before they have opened their lips. To 
the latter category John Warwick Daniel undoubtedly 
belonged. Of commanding presence, with a handsome 
and leonine countenance, courtly manners, a musical 
voice of great compass and fai'-reaching quality, a strong 
and well-trained mind, a warm and generous heart, a 
vivid imagination, he presented a superb picture to the 
eye and appealed with compelling force to the passions 
and emotions of all who heard him. He possessed the 
advantages of high family connections and of a collegiate 
education, to which was added the glamour of martial 
fame, achieved in his early manhood on many a bloody 
field. An Englishman dearly loves a lord and the average 
American dearly loves a soldier, and it can not be doubted 
that Senator Daniel's military record aided him mate- 
rially in his political battles. This is attested by the fact 
that Virginians fondly called him " the Lame Lion of 
Lynchburg " — most assuredly a helpful and fortunate 
sobriquet. For a generation he was the idol of his native 
State, and it was agreed by common consent that he 
should remain in the Senate so long as he lived, which he 
did. His reelection every six jears was a mere formality 
to comply with the Constitution and the statutes of the 
land. 

Virginia's great lyric oratoi", Patrick Henry, was dubbed 
" The forest-born Demosthenes." John Warwick Daniel 
may be not inaptly denominated Virginia's Cicero. 
Henry's fame rests almost entirely on tradition; but 
Daniel's is bottomed on the words which he actually 
spoke. The greatest of his orations is that on Gen. Robert 
E. Lee, which would have aroused envy in the bosom of 

[89] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator Daniel 

Tully himself. Daniel's masterful oration recalls and 
illustrates what Daniel Webster said of eloquence in his 
oration on John Adams and Thomas Jefferson: 

It must exist in the man, in the subject, and in the occasion. 
Affected passion, intense expression, the pomp of declamation, all 
may aspire to it; they can not reach it. It comes, if it come at 
all, like the outbreaking of a fountain from the earth or the burst- 
ing forth of volcanic fires, with spontaneous, original, native 
force. 

Webster was a great orator; he had a great subject on 
a great occasion, and he delivered a great oration. 
Daniel was a great orator; he had a great subject on a 
great occasion, and he delivered a great oration — one 
which will be read with delight so long as our language 
is spoken by the children of men. 

There was once a man named Hamilton, in the British 
Parliament, who delivered one splendid speech and could 
never be induced to make another speech. Hence he was 
nicknamed " Single-speech " Hamilton. Such was not 
the case with Senator Daniel. He delivered many excel- 
lent speeches, several fine orations, but I give it as my 
literary opinion, for what it is worth, that his oration 
over Lee is the one bj' which he will be remembered, and 
bj' which he would choose to be remembered. 

His theme was his old commander, one of the greatest 
of English-speaking captains; the occasion was the un- 
veiling of the recumbent statue of that famous soldiei-, 
one of the most beautiful statues ever fashioned by sculp- 
tor's chisel; the scene, Lexington, Va., gem of the moun- 
tains, one of the loveliest spots betwixt the two seas, 
where Stonewall Jackson taught and prayed, and whence 
he went forth to win world-wide and imperishable 
renown. Daniel's heart was in that oration. In it he 
will live; through it he will speak to his countrymen for- 
ever. 



[90] 



Address of Mr. Richardson, of Alabama 

Mr. Speaker: It is with instinctive hesitancy that I 
approach the presentation of the life and character of 
such a man as Senator John W. Daniel. I realize, Mr. 
Speaker, that I am in the presence of the life record of 
a great and noble man. Born to a proud name, reared 
under splendid influences, of superb presence, of brilliant 
mind and extensive education, the record of preferment 
of John W. Daniel by the people of Virginia marks a 
popularity that we find rarely equaled and never sur- 
passed in this country. It is a difficult task, Mr. Speaker, 
to take up the record of such a life on an occasion like 
this and select its choicest flowers and present them to his 
admiring countrymen. In such a brilliant, useful life as 
that of Senator Daniel we find along its patliway the 
blooming flowers of the sweetest charities of life, the 
gentlest graces of a chivalrous manhood, and a friend- 
ship and love for his fellow man that made for him a con- 
stantly increasing circle of friends. In his life, as I knew 
him, there shone in his character and permeated his life, 
as the soft rays of the setting sun rest upon a beautiful 
landscape, the inspiration of poesy that gives charm to 
intellect and beauty to life. 

He stood nearer to that true type of the southern man 
that linked the heroic age of the South prior to the Civil 
War with the changed conditions and ruling spirit of the 
people tliat prevailed after the conflict than any man 
I knew. 

On the outbreak of the Civil War, Senator Daniel left 
his studies and took his place in the Confederate Army. 
A courteous, brave young man, with his bosom swelling 

[91] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator Daniel 

with pride and love for Virginia, reared midst the grand- 
est and most heroic traditions that made the Old Dominion 
famous, honored, and respected throughout the civilized 
world, it was but natural for such a youth to step promptly 
into the ranks of the sons of Virginia, when the soil of 
the mother State was invaded by her northern foes. 

His record as a soldier during that fierce conflict 
between the States of the South and the North is well 
testified to by the wounds he received. No hardship, no 
suflfering from wounds could deter him, as a southern 
youth, from discharging his duties to the South. When 
ruin and desolation settled like a pall on the States of the 
South and reconstruction, the result of unrestrained sec- 
tional hatred, was reveling in its carnival of crime over a 
prostrate, brave, and helpless people, it was but natural 
that Virginia, in her hour of need, turned to such a brave 
son as Daniel and bade him to come to her legislative 
councils. He was elected to the house and the senate of 
the State legislature. It was there in the ancient halls of 
Virginia, where the architects of our Federal Constitution 
had pointed out the oppressions of King George, that he 
demonstrated an oratory that gave him the just ti'ibute of 
being Virginia's most courtly and charming orator since 
the close of the Civil War. But his star of destiny led 
him to a broader field. Virginia sent him to the National 
Capital, there to nobly preserve the glorious record of his 
great State. Free from sectional feeling, yielding to the 
inexorable arbitrament of arms, out of the ashes of defeat 
and the cruel blemishes of war, as a Senator from Vir- 
ginia in the United States Senate he wrought sublimely 
for home. State, and country. What a splendid career 
was his, and victory was his greatest crown. It requires 
conditions, Mr. Speaker, to produce such men, as it 
required war to bring Gen. Lee and Gen. Grant to be 
known and honored throughout the world. 



[92] 



Address of Mr. Richardson, of Alabama 

A distinguished man of our counti-y, in speaking of 
conditions in the South before the war, said that the 
South, before the war, " stood for an impossible institu- 
tion and a belated order of society." " Belated order of 
society." Could a society peculiar to the South — from 
the formation of the Government to 1860, impossible else- 
where by reason of the absence of conditions — could such 
a society, that gave Washington, Jefferson, Patrick Henry, 
John Marshall, and a long line of great names — a 
" society " that produced Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jack- 
son, and thousands of others, which same " society " gave 
impulse and tone to the life of such a man as Senator 
Daniel — could such a " society " be denominated " be- 
lated"? It is the output of a narrow mind, where too 
much learning has made him mad. 

Senator Daniel loved the survivors of his brave com- 
rades, and a true, cordial grasp of his hand was always 
extended to a Confederate soldier. He was with Gen. 
Lee, and the fires of his soul were kindled into a flame 
that burnt on the altar of his great heart, until death 
claimed him, by his contact with the world's greatest 
commander. It has been said that Senator Daniel's 
speech, in telling the story of Gen. Lee's life, will live as 
a true specimen of sublime oratory as long as Appomat- 
tox will be mentioned in history. The prone statue of 
Gen. Lee above his last resting place has given the genius 
of Valentine an honored niche in the world's temple of 
art, but Daniel's oration at the shrine will live after 
marble and brass has crumbled to dust. 

Senator Daniel was wise, prudent, and far-seeing, and 
he advocated and recommended that we should embody 
in our Democratic national platform Democratic stand- 
ards in a straightforward, common-sense manner. I 
quote from a leading Virginia paper what Senator Daniel 



[93] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator Daniel 

said about the platform to be drawn at the last Demo- 
cratic national convention : 

What we need, as I think, is a common-sense, plain, straight- 
forward Democratic platform, which will stop at that. If the 
convention dissipates into persiflage, the voters will likely act 
accordingly and go in all directions. No great reform can be 
made in a day. Wise statesmanship must deal with transporta- 
tion and with questions of the tariff and how to deal with the 
trusts sedately and prudently. The conserving spirit should 
never give way before the hot and destructive spirit that wants 
everything now and refused to emulate nature in her perfecting 
patient processes. Napoleon was great; but he lost by impa- 
tience. How poor are they who have not patience. What wound 
did ever heal but by degrees'? 

The extreme question of State's rights that came to the issue 
of battle has long been settled; but as long as the United States 
is a federation of States, questions of Federal and State jurisdic- 
tion will continue to arise and will be passed to the peaceful 
arbitration of the courts. Democracy has its fixed principles on 
the subject, and none has ever better stated them than Thomas 
Jcfl'erson in his first inauguration address, when he stood for 
" the support of the State's governments in all their rights as the 
most competent administrations for their domestic concerns and 
surest bulwarks against antirepublican tendencies. The preser- 
vation of the General Government in its whole Constitution vigor 
as the sheet anchor of our peace at home and safety abroad." 

These were brave words addressed to our party. The 
Democratic party sadly misses the wise counsel of such a 
man. I read the following tribute at the death of Sena- 
tor Daniel from the Richmond Times-Dispatch — the lead- 
ing paper of the State of Vii'ginia — and it so impressed 
me that I desire to help perpetuate it by giving it further 
publication on this occasion : 

John W. Daniel breathed the true spirit of southern chivalry 
with all the grace of the perfect gentleman. He was urbane and 
gracious to all, humble in the flower and glory of his manhood, 
gallant and forbearing, gentle and considerate. He never 
stooped, as a man, to the baser deeds of politics, and he never 



[94] 



Address of Mh. Riciiakdson, or Alabama 



forgot, as a gt'iillcman, the duties of his station and his birth. 
How much richer heritage tliat is than if he had been otherwise 
and died possessed of $100,000,000. 

Could greater praise be given a man? It comes from 
the leading newspaper of his State. His name and record 
is more "valuable than money." The encomium was 
truthful and deserved. 

Mr. Speaker, I have said more than I intended to say. 
I was a great admirer of Senator Daniel, and I was 
frequently in his company. 

He has passed, Mr. Speaker, to his eternal rest, but his 
hold upon the hearts and affections of the people of the 
" Old Dominion " is undiminished, because he was a son 
" after the heart " of his native State. He will live long 
in the hearts of the men and women who love the South, 
its noble record and traditions, because we believe that 
Senator Daniel typified what was truest and best in 
southern character — he was candid, courteous, and 
courageous, not on particular occasions and in certain 
things, but at all times and in all things. 

Virginia, I dare say, has mourned tlie loss of sons with 
more illustrious careers, but never, Mr. Speaker, was 
there one, nor will there be in the future, a son of Vir- 
ginia truer and prouder of the name, fame, and grandeur 
of old Virginia than John W. Daniel, who sank into his 
grave, in the soil of his native State, without a stain or 
suspicion on his life. 



[95] 



Address of Mr. Kahn, of California 

Mr. Speaker: 

The -wine of life keeps oozing drop by drop; 
The leaves of life keep falling one by one. 

It is given to but few men to shine with such resplen- 
dent luster in so many varied walks of life as shone our 
lamented friend, Senator John Warwick Daniel, of 
Virginia. 

"While but a youth, 18 years of age, he joined the mili- 
tary forces of the Old Dominion, and as a soldier, fighting 
for the cause which he believed to be right, won his spurs 
upon the field of battle. Brave, fearless, dauntless, he 
gradually rose from the ranks to a major's station in the 
Southern Army. So badly wounded on May 6, 1864, dur- 
ing the Battle of the Wilderness, that he never was able 
thereafter to rejoin his regiment — for a Minie ball had 
shattered his left leg and rendered it practically useless 
during the remainder of his life — he never allowed any 
hatred of those who fought on the opposite side to rankle 
in his breast. With the surrender of Appomattox he 
cheerfully turned from thoughts of war to the arts of 
peace. And in those arts of peace he won additional 
renown and glory, not alone for himself and his kindred, 
but for his State and his country. 

For as a young lawyer he soon attained great distinc- 
tion as a member of the bar of the State of Virginia, and 
early in his career, by reason of his masterful knowledge 

[96] 



Address of Mr. Kahn, of California 

of the law and his hrilliant forensic ability, he became 
one of its brightest ornaments. 

As an author his fame soon became international. His 
work on " Negotiable Instruments " will continue a stand- 
ard authority in that branch of jurisprudence long after 
we of the present generation shall have moldered into 
dust. 

As a statesman his life and character will prove an 
inspiration to thousands who will come after us. His 
unquestioned honesty, his steadfastness of purpose, his 
devout patriotism, his unswerving devotion to duty, will 
encourage them to keep alive the fires of the noblest tra- 
ditions of tlie Republic and to uphold inviolate the honor 
and the glory of this great American Commonwealth. 

His classic features and his noble mien at once chal- 
lenged the admiration of the beholder and stamped him 
as a man of mark in any assemblage. 

For nearly a quarter of a century he graced the floor 
of the Senate. During all the years of that long and 
eventful period he participated in the discussion of prac- 
tically all of the great questions that demanded in their 
solution the highest qualities of mind and statesmanship. 

He was a strict party man but he never descended to 
the low level of blind, bitter, and vindictive partisanship 
in dealing with political opponents. 

His own naturally broad intellect made him tolerant 
of the narrowness of men less liberally endowed than 
himself. Being of pure mind himself, he was willing to 
concede purity of motive to those whose views differed 
from his own. 

Himself a man of strong and pronounced opinions on 
problems of great public import, he nevertheless per- 
mitted men to differ from him without impugning their 
integrity or questioning their fidelitj' to the people's wel- 
fare. 

1004°— 11 — 7 [97] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator Daniel 

He scorned the obsequious cant of the political hypo- 
crite, and he never sought to win the plaudits of the mul- 
titude by resorting to the dubious devices of the charla- 
tan and demagogue. 

He was one of that noble type which has been the em- 
bodiment of true greatness since the dawn of recorded 
time — that noble type of men who would preferably and 
gladly welcome defeat rather than stoop to conquer. 

Small wonder, therefore, that he became a popular idol 
among the people of his own State. Small wonder, there- 
fore, that when the solemn church bells tolled his funeral 
knell the grief of his bereaved fellow citizens was no less 
poignant than that of those who were nearest and dearest 
to him. 

Mr. Speaker, I had been a Member of this House but a 
brief period when I first learned to know and to esteem 
Senator Daniel. He visited my home city of San Fran- 
cisco during the summer of 1900, and I had the pleasure 
of showing him some slight courtesies on that occasion. 
Some of our volunteer regiments were returning from the 
Philippines at that time, and he repeatedly expressed his 
great gratification upon the fact that we were indeed a 
reunited country, and that the War with Spain had helped 
to wipe out what little sectional feeling that still might 
have slumbered in either the North or the South. 

The climate, the scenery, and the matchless fertility 
of California were a revelation to him, and to the very 
end of his days he spoke of his trip to the Pacific coast 
as one of the most delightful experiences of his life. He 
often told me that he hoped on some future occasion to 
make a much more extended visit to that section of our 
common country. But it was not to be. The Great Mas- 
ter of the Universe, who rules the destinies of men even 
as of nations, called him to the sleep everlasting on June 



[98] 



Address of Mu. Kahn, or California 

29, 1910. His brilliant career was ended. His work on 
earth was accomplished. He passed on, full of honors, 
beloved by his colleagues in the Senate as well as bj' the 
Members of this House who had been privileged to know 
him. He lies at rest among his friends, his neighbors^ 
and his kinsmen, in beautiful Spring Hill Cemetery, near 
his well-beloved city of Lynchburg. Peace be to his ashes I 



[99] 



Address of Mr. Glass, of Virginia 

Mr. Speaker: Unaccustomed to participation in com- 
memorative exercises, and unapprised until within the 
last few days of the purpose to set apart this day for 
memorial services in honor of tlie late Senator Daniel, I 
nevertheless feel that I can not let the occasion pass with- 
out joining with my colleagues in paying tribute to one 
who was my friend and townsman, and with whom for 
many years I was associated in public affairs. 

Born in Lynchburg, Va., September 5, 1842, John War- 
wick Daniel came from a patrician family and of a line- 
age noted for attainments in the field of law. His father 
was a distinguished member of the Supreme Court of 
Appeals of Virginia, and his grandfather was a jurist 
scarcely less renowned. Of a parentage accustomed to 
the atmosphere of culture and occupying a position of 
prominence in a society whose gentleness and refinement 
have been unsurpassed in any age of the Republic, young 
Daniel received the home training as well as the formal 
education that only a well-born young Virginian of that 
day could receive. He was educated in the private 
schools of his native town, and later attended the Lynch- 
burg College and Dr. Gessner Harrison's University 
School. From his schoolmates who still sui'vive it is 
learned that John Daniel, even when a youth, exhibited a 
natural dignity of character and of outward bearing, 
altliough he was loved for his true comradeship, his 
kindly impulses, and his pleasant sociability. It was at 
the Harrison school that the call of duty summoned him 
to the defense of his native State at the outbreak of the 

, [100] 



Address of Mr. Glass, of Virginia 



Civil War. Although but 18 years of age, he immediately 
went to the front, and was soon made a second lieu- 
tenant. It is not my purpose here to-day to recount 
John Daniel's long, faithful, and brave service in the war 
between the States. 

Only a little more than a year has passed since his 
maimed figure was familiar to most of us who are gath- 
ered here to-day, and it bore mute witness to his courage 
on the field of battle, for it was during the fierce days in 
the Wilderness that Daniel, then a major, while leading 
a charge of the Fifty-eighth Virginia Infantry, a part of 
Pegram's gallant division, received the shot that made 
him a cripple for life. That was in 1864. Previous to 
that he had been frequently promoted for gallantly and 
for valuable services, acting during a large part of the 
war as the chief of staff to Gen. Jubal A. Early, and being 
three times wounded on the open field. It was Gen. John 
B. Gordon, who afterwards referred to him as " the brave 
and brilliant Daniel," and his courage and acuteness 
caused him to be selected for military duties of a respon- 
sible and difficult nature. The war ended while he was 
recovering from what was feared would be his deathbed; 
only his splendid constitution and his unconquerable will 
caused him to survive his dangerous wound, and a guiding 
Providence gave him a life to live in eminent service of 
his State and his united country. 

The political career of Maj. Daniel — for so we have 
always called him in his home city — began almost imme- 
diately after the days of reconstruction. When the war 
was over he attended the law school of the University of 
Virginia, and there won prominence as a legal student 
and as a public speaker. The times in Virginia were 
politically chaotic; there was danger from political para- 
sites who had come in to feast upon the wreck of a Com- 
monwealth, and there was menace from the feverish radi- 



[101] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator Daniel 

calism within. Men of stern wills, with an unconquered 
love for Virginia, an abundant faith, and an unimpeach- 
able integrity were needed in those days. There were 
many who, discouraged by the gloomy outlook, had left 
for newer States, there to begin life over; but it is charac- 
teristic of the man that Daniel stayed. 

To attempt to give, within the compass of these 
remarks, even a brief account of the part he played in the 
rebmlding of Virginia and placing her upon a firmer 
foundation is, of course, impossible. I may be permitted 
to recall what all Virginians and students of Virginia his- 
tory know, that the name of Daniel was linked with the 
leaders for conservative reform and for honorable dispo- 
sition of the burdens of the State. He at once became a 
commanding figure among the men of his type and belief, 
and later was the central figure. Chosen in 1875 to rep- 
resent his legislative district in the State senate, for seven 
years he there fought the battle for political honor and 
righteousness. During that time he twice was frustrated 
in his ambition to enter Congress; in 1877 he barely 
missed being nominated for governor of Virginia, and in 
1881 he was selected to lead a brilliant, though unsuccess- 
ful, fight against the so-called Readjuster Part}' of that 
day. 

In 1884 he was elected to the House of Representatives 
of the Forty-ninth Congress. From that day until the 
day he died Maj. Daniel was a prominent figure in the 
national councils. Upon the death of Senator William 
Mahone, one year after, Daniel became United States 
Senator from Virginia, and continued to serve his State 
and Nation in that capacity for 23 years. His part in the 
guiding of the Nation, both as an individual and as a 
Member of the Upper House of Congress, is too well 
known to demand repetition here. He was independent 
in opinion and fearless in action, and while his views 

[102] 



Address of Mk. Glass, or Virginia 



could not always meet the unanimous approbation of his 
constituents, he was, nevertheless, reelected to the Senate 
four times without opposition. He was seven times a 
delegate at large from Virginia to the national conven- 
tions of his party, and gained recognition as a potent 
figure in framing the policies of the great political 
organization. 

But to his neighbors and to the thousands that for a 
generation felt that no honor could be given him unde- 
servedly Senator Daniel was more than a successful 
figure in the uncertain battle ground of political strife. 
Regarded as the representative "Virginian of Virginians " 
for more than two decades, looked up to as the natural 
leader of important social and political movements within 
his State, he presented a figure whose unique presence 
and persistence need other explanations than those ordi- 
narily assigned in seeking the causes of what is com- 
monly termed success before the public. Senator Daniel, 
in common with many of his contemporaries, was a man 
of unusual ability. He possessed a mind naturally 
molded and carefully trained in legal methods of thought 
and yet broadened into a capacity for wide comprehen- 
sion as well as deepened by painstaking study of a multi- 
tude of diverse questions and subjects. He was more 
than ordinarily eloquent; he had the power of inspiring 
speech and the force of overwhelming denunciation or 
stinging sarcasm no less than he possessed the gift of per- 
suasive words and tones. He was animated by real 
enthusiasm and drew men by the impelling force of his 
personal magnetism. He possessed a courage and a fire 
which won for him the sobriquet of " The Lame Lion of 
Lynchburg." 

He occupied a position whose authority increased with 
his tenure. Experience taught him as it does all men of 
discernment. But these, Mr. Speaker, are things common 

[103] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator Daniel 

to a multitude. Men possessing even such qualities have 
failed in maintaining their success because of some inher- 
ent weakness. The possession of ability and of courage 
accounts no more for the unique position of John Daniel 
in the esteem of his constituents than it explains the fact 
that his faults and errors of judgment did not diminish 
the greatness of his own career as similar errors had 
impaired the fortunes of others. I think we who knew 
the man will agree that there entered into the composi- 
tion of his character qualities that far outweighed mis- 
takes and magnified his abilities. 

From the viewpoint of one who knew him intimately 
and loved to do him honor, I may define as one of the 
distinguishing characteristics of Maj. Daniel his thor- 
oughgoing democracy. His democracy of action and of 
belief was not the false democracy of the demagogue. 
Of patrician blood, reared in an aristocratic home, he was 
nevertheless the companion of the poor and uncultured 
as well as of the rich and the refined. Dignified of man- 
ner and of mien, he possessed a natural poise, not a prac- 
ticed or an assumed pose. He loved to converse with the 
untutored man of the field or of the shop as well as with 
the savant at the gathering places. The Confederate 
veteran who had never worn a star or bar or chevron 
found him as good a comrade as did his own common 
messmate on the camping grounds of years before. In- 
heriting the social distinctions of antebellum society in 
Virginia, these distinctions did not confine his outlook in 
narrow conceptions of caste. His democracy was as well 
known as his dignity. It was the natural outgrowth of a 
deep-rooted belief which was seen not only in his per- 
sonal conduct, but also in his political tenets, and which 
his culture and social inheritances made rare. Another 
distinguishing mark of his long career was the unques- 
tioned integrity of the man. To few public men is it per- 



[104] 



Address of Mr. Glass, of Virginia 



niitted that their absolute good faith shall not be doubted 
in the heat of political campaigns. The honesty of Sena- 
tor Daniel was his chief asset, if I may so speak of such 
a quality. His long public life, extending, as it did, over 
many political periods within his State and in the Nation, 
afforded opportunities for enemies to assail him at every 
point. Times changed and policies changed in the two 
score years of his public service, and yet through all of 
these vicissitudes he stood as a type of the honest man in 
politics and private life. 

To his genuine democracy of belief and of action and 
to his " Spartan integrity " should be added a third dis- 
tinguishing characteristic. This was his unselflsh con- 
ception of service. It is by no means a remarkable thing 
in these days for a man of ability, who is long in the 
employ of the people, to become rich. It is almost a sign 
of the age that a man who has ability shall sell it and 
thereby become more or less wealthy in material goods, 
or that a man who has the opportunity to profit better 
than the other man in the market places shall gain by 
that opportunity. It has almost become an evidence of 
incapacity in the estimation of many when a man does 
not devote his chief efforts to the assembling of worldly 
possessions and does not choose as the directions of his 
public service the paths to the greatest monetary profits. 
In my opinion, the life of Senator Daniel is one of the 
most pertinent comments possible on the conceptions of 
the times. A brilliant lawyer, he chose to consider his 
constituents his chief clients; widely learned in legal sub- 
jects and the author of two textbooks in law that are rec- 
ognized as authorities, he did not further exploit a field 
that was justly open to him lest it might interfere with the 
work which he had been chosen to do by those who 
trusted him; coming in contact with hundreds of oppor- 
tunities whereby the very use of his name would mean 



[105] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator Daniel 

handsome remuneration, he preferred that his name 
should be linked with the service that he rendered the 
people. Burdened as he was by the debts that he 
assimied, he chose rather to live on small means and give 
the entire force of his unusual energies and abilities in a 
life that was supremely unselfish — a life of real service 
unmixed with thought of private financial gain and unsul- 
lied bj' ambition for wealth alone. 

With these elements of genuine democracy in belief 
and in practice, of unswerving personal integrity, and of 
unselfish devotion to his ideal of public service, which 
constituted traits so predominant in his character, added 
to his splendid abilities, inherited and achieved, the most 
remarkable fact of Senator Daniel's political position and 
career ceases to be a thing to be marveled at and becomes 
an object lesson. I refer to the fact that his persistent 
and wonderful popularity among his constituents was not 
in any degree or way based upon or aided by political 
organization. It seems almost a curious thing, in these 
days of literary bureaus, political agencies, secret under- 
standings, exchanging of favoi's, and the hundred and one 
theatrical accessories thought to be necessary to the 
obtaining of applause and the reaping of benefits upon 
the political stage, that any man, however capable and 
however honest and unselfish, could not onlj' play an 
important part before the seemingly fickle public for a 
lifetime, but could be the recipient of continued honor 
and reverence and affection from two generations of a 
people. And yet such was the part that Senator Daniel 
played without studied effort. What honors he received 
were awarded willingly. What trusts were given him 
to hold were bestowed because of an unfailing and unvio- 
lated faith in the man. What services were assigned him 
to perform were so designated because his devotion to 
service was undoubted. He needed no political orgauiza- 

[106] 



Address of Mr. Glass, of Virginia 



tion with which to bolster up the foundations of his popu- 
larity. He gave no offices to induce adherence. He 
scorned to temporize with political enemies in order to 
attain personal ambitions. There was no trading of party 
principles upon grounds of " expediency " when expedi- 
ency meant private gain. None of the methods of the 
ordinary self-seeker was the secret with which he led his 
charmed life upon so many political battle fields. He 
stood alone in the invulnerable armor of his own honesty; 
he fought with the resistless weapons of a deep sympathy 
and an intelligent statesmanship; he conquered in the 
genuine affection of his countrymen. 

I realize, Mr. Speaker, that I have succeeded in paying 
but a poor tribute to the memory of one so close to the 
hearts of his colleagues and of his fellow Virginians and 
his neighbors. Even to those who have been wont to 
participate in his daily life, to those who knew his faults 
and recognized his abilities and felt the influence of his 
character and example, a true estimate, or even an ade- 
quate portrayal of the man as he was, is difficult, if, 
indeed, it is possible. I do not pretend to have accom- 
plished citlicr. I regard if more important, more in keep- 
ing with the passion of his own life, that the self-sacri- 
ficing honesty and service of John W. Daniel shall remain 
in the minds of his fellow servants as an inspiring exam- 
ple and in flie hearts of his fellow citizens as a precious 
heritage. No eloquence of tongue, no multitude of pleas- 
ant-sounding words, no heaping up of tributes can add to 
its beaut}'; no criticism of his errors or caviling at his 
faults can detract from its worth. 

And so the personality of the inan, with its differen- 
tiating characteristics, remains, though the eloquent voice 
is hushed and the sympathetic heart is still. John W. 
Daniel stands out as a true and unusual type of the great 
men who have become a part of the history of this Nation. 



[1071 



Memorial Addresses: Senator Daniel 



His was the part of being not onlj^ honored and trusted, 
but also loved; his was the dignity that naturally clothes 
a lofty character; his was the courtliness that is the unas- 
sumed mark of a real gentleman; his was the democracy 
of belief and action that arises from the unpretended 
humility of soul; his was the deep sympathy that comes 
with a mind that understands and a heart that feels; and 
his was the unbetrayed trust, held sacred in a life sternly 
conforming to an unchanged ideal and kept with a pas- 
sionate realization of its worth as that most precious 
thing, the faith of one man in the honor of another. 



[108] 



Address of Mr. Lamb, of Virginia 

Mr. Speaker: Once more, and for the sixth time in 
twice as many years, the Virginia delegation in Congress 
is called upon to pay trihutc to the character and public 
services of a deceased colleague. 

The death of one-half of our number in 12 years sug- 
gests the thought that " in the midst of life we are in 
death," and brings the solemn reminder that the young 
as well as the old may be called at any hour, and that we 
would do well to make the necessary preparation for our 
departure. 

Since we so frequently contemplate death and know 
that we shall before long explore the " uncharted seas " 
ourselves, we may well view it as a state less mysterious 
and even more natural than life. 

The brave man learns, as the soldier does, to put the 
fear of death behind him; and if he thinks of it at all, it 
will be at such times when the scythe has cut down some 
loved one or some honored friend and colleague, as is 
the case with us this hour. 

In the death of John W. Daniel Virginia lost a match- 
less orator, soldier, and statesman. In the councils of the 
State and at the firesides of her citizens of every class and 
political faith there was sincere gi'ief when Daniel died. 

There was among us a sentiment for him that grew with 
each succeeding year and spread from fireside to fireside, 
until the home that loved him not nor grieved for him 
was hard to find in Virginia. Nor was his death a loss to 
his State alone. Long since he had proved his worth and 
won liis reputation in a broader field. He had demon- 



[109] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator Daniel 

strated by ability and service bis rigbt to rank and be 
remembered among the great statesmen, orators, autbors, 
and lawyers of his country. 

John Warwick Daniel was the only son of Judge Wil- 
liam Daniel, jr., and Sarah Ann Warwick, his wife. He 
was born in Lynchburg, Va., on September 5, 1842, and 
died in Lynchburg on June 29, 1910. 

His early education was in the private schools of his 
native city and at the university school of Prof. Gessner 
Harrison in Albemarle County, Va. He was at this school 
in 1861 when the Civil War commenced. He at once 
enlisted as a private in a Lynchburg cavali-y troop, serv- 
ing only a few weeks before he was assigned to duty as 
drillmaster and lieutenant in Company A, Eleventh Vir- 
ginia Infantry, forming later a part of the famous " Stone- 
wall Brigade." 

Later he was made adjutant of his regiment and then 
chief of staff of Lieut. Gen. Jubal A. Early, with the rank 
of major. 

His gallant and brilliant record as a Confederate soldier 
closed at the Battle of the Wilderness, May 6, 1864, where 
he was wounded and crippled for life while rallying and 
leading his brigade. 

The close of the war found Daniel poor and maimed 
for life, but undaunted and undiscouraged. He entered 
the law class of the University of Virginia in the fall of 
1865 and prepared himself for the profession which he 
so adorned as lawyer and author. 

He commenced the practice of law in Lynchburg with 
his father, and early won confidence and success. Not- 
withstanding his ardent and exacting public duties, he 
continued to practice his profession so long as he lived, 
conducting with marked ability in our highest courts, 
both State and Federal, many cases involving questions 
of greatest importance and intricacy, yet finding time 



[110] 



Address of Mh. Lamb, of Vikginia 



from a life overcrowded with labor to prepare and pub- 
lish Daniel on Negotiable Instruments and Daniel on 
Attachments, valued textbooks, universally used in our 
schools and courts. 

In 1869 his political career was launched, and it is as 
statesman and Representative that Daniel rendered his 
greatest service and won his greatest fame. 

He was elected to the Virginia House of Delegates in 
1869 and served until 1872. In 1875 he was sent to the 
Virginia Senate and served until 1881. 

In the Virginia House and Senate Daniel was recog- 
nized as an able and fearless leader and statesman, and 
there laid the foundation for his future political career 
deep and strong in the confidence and affection of the 
people of his State. 

In 1876 Daniel was the Democratic elector at large for 
Virginia in the presidential election. He was delegate 
at large for his State in the national Democratic conven- 
tions of 1880, 1888, 1892, 1896, 1900, 1904, and 1908, and 
temporary chairman of the convention of 1896 and chair- 
man of the resolution (platform) committees of 1900 and 
1904. 

He was Democratic nominee for governor of Virginia 
in 1881, but was defeated by William E. Cameron, the 
readjuster candidate. In 1884 he was elected to the House 
of Representatives of the Forty-ninth Congress. In 1885 
he was elected to the United States Senate to succeed Gen. 
William Mahone for the term beginning March 4, 1887, 
and reelected as the unanimous choice of his party for 
this high position in 1891, 1897, 1904, and 1910. 

In 1901 he was elected as a delegate to the Constitu- 
tional Convention of Virginia, and rendered his State 
valuable service in framing her new constitution. 

He was prominently mentioned by his party for the 
presidency, and in 1896 and 1904 it is believed that the 

[111] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator Daniel 

nomination for Vice President would have been his had 
he not discouraged the idea. 

Daniel combined those qualities of sterling character, 
rare fidelity, and faithfulness in the discharge of every 
duty which justly entitled him to live in the hearts and 
memories of his countrymen. 

His sincerity and uncompromising integrity were never 
questioned. To devoted patriotism he added sturdy in- 
dependence, disdaining to calculate consequences. Sus- 
tained by conscious rectitude and purity of motive he 
feared no man, and boldly and openly followed his con- 
victions, seeking to mold and lead public thought, rather 
than wait to follow it in inglorious safety and popularity. 

A worshiper of republican institutions and an ardent 
student of its principles, he labored incessantly for means 
and measures to preserve and perpetuate them. Though 
an active and conspicuous leader in party strife and ex- 
citement, all concur in ascribing to him none but the 
most patriotic, conscientious, and disinterested motives. 

He was singularly charming in manner, amiable, mag- 
netic, and fascinating in public and in private life, and 
quickly and firmly bound to him for all time in lasting 
friendship and afl'ection those with whom he came in 
contact. 

Daniel's brilliant record as a Confederate soldier, liis 
classic features, his silver tones, and gracious gift of ora- 
tory would not alone account for his endearment to his 
State and people. To these were added the highest ideals, 
warped by no consideration of selfish interest; truth un- 
questioned; honor untarnished; courage incomparable; 
and a civic conscience which he followed unwaveringly. 
These with his integrity, energy, oratory, and genius are 
the qualities that for 50 years endeared John Daniel to 
his State and his people. He was, indeed, an example of 
civic virtue as rare as beautiful. 

[1121 



Address of Mr. Lamb, of Virginia 



It was well said of him in the Charlotte (N. C.) Ob- 
server — 

As legislator, Representative, and Senator his service has been 
conspicuous and brilliant. Senator Daniel's fame will rest pri- 
marily upon his oratorical gifts. With a culture based upon the 
widest reading, and a scarcely less wide knowledge of men and 
affairs, his eloquence was at once simply and irresistibly appeal- 
ing. No one who ever sat spellbound under the sway of that 
magnificent voice, rolling forth one noble period after another, 
is likely to lose the impression received. The topic which 
elicited his happiest efforts was the " Lost Cause," to which his 
devotion was most sincere and of which his crutch served as an 
ever-present reminder. More than one of his memorial addresses 
have long since taken rank as American classics. For the reason 
that Senator Daniel's voice was so often and so effectively raised 
in honor of the heroes of the Confederacy, not Virginia alone, 
but every Commonwealth in Dixie, owes him a debt of gratitude, 
and throughout the bounds of each his memory will long be 
fragrant. 

And from the Winchester (Va.) Star comes this trib- 
ute — 

The exact position held by Senator Daniel in Virginia was 
unique. The exalted and, indeed, the preeminent place he held 
in the hearts of Virginians was due to the fact that in him all 
those qualities which appeal to a chivalrous people were per- 
sonified. His position and influence is a tribute to the tremen- 
dous power of sentiment and the proneness of a generous people 
to an idealism embodied in the person of a popular hero. His 
life, his physical presence, his winged words, lent him a glamor 
which caught and permanently held the imagination of Virgin- 
ians. His wounded leg, his classic face and beautiful eyes, his 
voice musical as a flute and eloquent beyond the experience of 
men, the stainlessness of his life, the gallant front he held against 
misfortunes, gave him a place which no man in the future can 
hope to fill. 

As was very natural, the thoughts of Senator Daniel turned 
much to the past. The mighty struggle in which he took so brave 
a part left an indelible impress upon his memory. The eye of 

1004°— 11 8 [113] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator Daniel 

his mind saw through the mist of years the great squadrons set 
in the field, the ear of his mind heard the thunder of artillery, 
and in his heart abided the memory of his comrades, living and 
dead. 

The soldier sleeps; the incorruptible statesman has become a 
memory and example; the good and loving man, whose shoulders 
were burdened with many honors, has gone to his rest. Virginia 
mourns, yet in her sorrow there is the proud consciousness that 
he who was the best loved of all her sons has fought a good fight, 
and that his life and qualities justified to the full her pride and 
her affection. 

Richly endowed as Daniel was, and showered with 
honors and praise, his modestj' and freedom from conceit 
were remarkable. His manners were simple, courtly, 
charming, giving and commanding deference and respect 
of mighty and lunnble alike. Sincere, frank, independ- 
ent with all; overbearing or flattering to none, no matter 
what his rank in life might be. The rare charm of put- 
ting his listener at ease was his. Whether as host or 
guest, with rich or poor, mighty or lowly, his manners 
marked the high-bred, modest gentleman, in whose so- 
ciety it was delightful to be. 

One of the crowning virtues in Maj. Daniel's character 
was his loyalty to his friends and his confidence and trust 
in the people. In his masterful speech on the force bill 
he emphasized this to a degree. That speech might well 
have been read and fully digested when two important 
questions were being discussed in this House a few days 
ago. 

The people of the South, and particularly of Virginia, 
were greatly impressed and deeply grateful to Senator 
Daniel for the noble stand he then took and the ability 
with which he argued that question, involving, as it did, 
their welfare and happiness. 

I never saw his faith in his people in the least shaken, 
save on one occasion. 

[114] 



Address of Mr. Lamb, of Virginia 



At a Virginia convention I missed him from his usual 
prominent position on the platform. Fearing he was 
sick, 1 visited his room and found him depressed. After 
talking a short time he turned to me that kindly, inquir- 
ing expression of his noble countenance that no one will 
ever forget who enjoyed his confidence and said, " These 
people expect to defeat me." 1 replied, " Never; we have 
50,000 soldiers left in Virginia. They and 100,000 sons, 
who have sprung from their loins, love and admire you. 
You are safe in their hands." 

A little son of a Virginia father was about to be pun- 
ished for some trivial offense. The little fellow looked 
up pitifully and said, "Father, trust me; 1 will do so no 
more." A faithful Confederate officer, who commanded 
one of the best companies I knew in the army, was asked 
by the colonel of his regiment how he kept so many men 
for duty and why they were always so cheerful and ready 
for the fight. He made this simple reply: " 1 trust them, 
and they love me." 

The people of Virginia loved John W. Daniel, and he 
trusted them. The whole story of his success is told in 
this sentence. 

His death left a vacancy difficult to fill. Other Vir- 
ginians great and good will occupy the position that he 
adorned for 30 years. They will measure up to his stand- 
ard along many lines, no doubt; but the school from 
which came his equipment, with its ideals, its sacrifices, 
and tragedies, is closed. 

Take him for all in all, 

I shall not look upon his like again. 



[115] 



Address of Mr. Holland, of Virginia 

Mr. Speaker: I have listened with very great interest to 
the eloquent addresses of my colleagues on the life and 
character of the late Senator Daniel, one of the foremost 
Virginians of his time. They have spoken of him as a 
soldier with an enviable record, as a lawyer of conspicu- 
ous ability, as an author of great distinction, as an orator 
of almost matchless grace and brilliancy, as a politician 
of stainless honor, as a statesman of incorruptible virtue, 
and as a patriot loyal and devoted to the interests of his 
State and of his country, and have drawn beautiful pic- 
tures of his achievements. It would be exceedingly diffi- 
cult, therefore, for one who did not know him intimately 
to add anything to what has already been said of him, 
and it is not my purpose to attempt it. 

But, Mr. Speaker, I do desire to read, and thereby help 
to perpetuate, a most fitting tribute in his memory which 
appeared in the Virginian-Pilot, a newspaper published 
in Norfolk, Va., on the morning after his death. This 
tribute is from the pen of ex-Gov. William E. Cameron, 
who was his opponent for governor of Virginia, and de- 
feated him, knew him long and intimately, and is, per- 
haps, as well fitted as any man in the State to make a 
true estimate of his life and of his character: 

JOHN DANIKL 

No public man of his own day and generation has so attracted 
and held the trusting affection of the Virginia people as John 
Warwick Daniel. Throughout an active career of nearly half a 
century he has stood conspicuously forward as the exponent of 
the best sentiment of the Commonwealth, voicing always a spirit 

[116] 



Address of Mr. Holland, of Virginia 

of patriotism too deeply founded to be shaken by considerations 
of selfish interest, and occupying a moral pedestal so high that 
those who felt constrained at times to take issue with his opin- 
ions on political questions were always ready to pay tribute to 
his sincerity of conviction and purity of motive. His brilliant 
record as a soldier, his commanding figure and classic face, his 
mellowness of tongue and grace of gesture, and a gift of oratory 
which lacked no essential quality of natural grace or cultured 
finish — all these bespoke for him initial popularity; but neither 
one nor all of these pleasing attributes would have sufliced to 
establish and protract his primacy in the public heart through 
the trying political vicissitudes of so many eventful years, had he 
been wanting in those elements of character that owe nothing to 
chance and yield nothing to change — courage unfaltering, truth 
unquestioning, honor beyond taint or temptation, and a civic 
conscience as sensitive as that which guided and guarded the 
conduct of the private gentleman. It was his fortune more than 
once to run counter to the candidates and policies favored by a 
majority of his constituents. A lesser man, or one less firmly 
anchored in the confidence of his fellows, might have abstained 
from open difference with friends and colleagues; or, having 
pleaded his views in vain, might have suffered loss of prestige 
and of following as a consequence. Not so with John Daniel. 
He occupied a plane above that of the mere officeholder and 
politician, and his next reelection to the Senate was marked by 
tlie same enthusiastic unanimity which had attended the previous 
occasion. His people and his party had faith in him. He was 
not an organizer or a manager of men. What is known as the 
" machine " side of politics did not appeal to him. But the lack 
of that which made the strength of other leaders did not consti- 
tute a weakness in him. More was expected of him in certain 
ways than of others similarly placed, and less in other ways. 
Perhaps that this was true illustrates most perfectly the pedestal 
on which the esteem and affection of Virginians had elevated 
John Daniel. His death leaves a vacancy never to be exactly 
filled. Other Virginians, some great and some good, will inherit 
the toga to which he lent dignity for nearly three decades, but 
the school from which his equipment and his standards were 
derived is closed, and — 

" Take him for all in all, we ne'er shall look upon his like 
again." 

[117] 



Address of Mr. Slemp, of Virginia 

Mr. Speaker : I desire to avail myself of the privilege of 
placing in the Record a few remarks on the life of Sen- 
ator John W. Daniel, of Virginia. 

I am glad, Mr. Speaker, to add my humble words of 
tribute to the life of the distinguished Senator of our 
State in whose memory these services arc held to-day. 

I knew Senator Daniel well, if not intimately, and his 
death was to me a personal loss as well as a source of 
grief to an entire Commonwealth. For a period of over 
30 years he had been the most conspicuous figure in the 
life and politics of our State, though in later years his 
great powers belonged rather to the Nation than to the 
State, and I can say that no one occupied a warmer place 
in the hearts of the Virginia people than did this great 
orator and statesman. 

His death is not only to me a personal loss, but it is a 
State loss as well, since he left no one to take his place. 
He was the last, and certainly the best, of that type of 
statesman and orator that made Virginia famous in the 
early days of the Republic. The spirit of the early 
fathers lived and breathed anew in him, and all Virginia 
felt that in his courtliness of manner, his knightly bear- 
ing, and fervid eloquence were reproduced the manners 
and the life of those who contributed most to the estab- 
lishment of our national life. It was for this in part that 
Virginia loved him, and the more reason why Virginians, 
proud of their illustrious traditions, mourned his death. 
His legal learning, his genteel manners, his power of 



[118] 



Address of Mr. Slemp, of Virginia 



speech, and his love of country would have made him a 
fit compatriot and coworker with Jefferson, with Madison, 
with Monroe, and with others of that period who liave 
written their names " where time should not efface them 
and where all men should behold them." 

I was drawn to him by his indescribable charm of man- 
ner and the goodness of heart and soul that radiated from 
him in every action he took. I believe all his people felt 
this way about him. They saw in him a representative 
of their glorious past, of their own imperishable history, 
and they loved him, they followed him, and honored him 
as they have done no other in recent jcars. 

Richly endowed with personal charms, of magnetic, 
even majestic, presence, classic features, distinguished 
bearing, he had in his very appearance the power to 
please. Gifted far beyond the ordinary, both physically 
and mentally, his restless nature forced him into every 
conflict, whether of war or peace, in which either his 
State or his fellow citizens participated. 

From the time he shouldered a musket in the defense 
of his State to the day he breathed his last, a recipient 
of the highest honor a grateful State could bestow on 
him, he was a part of every movement in which Virginia 
was interested. 

His life was as varied as were his accomplishments. 
His versatile mind turned with rapidity from problems 
of law and jurisprudence to battles in the political field 
for party supremacy, and thence to a consideration of 
the great questions affecting the Nation. 

His personal career was mainly triumphant. He fought 
with distinction, was seriously wounded on the field of 
battle, and his body ever afterwards bore mute testimony 
of the sacrifice he made for the sake of the lost cause. 

Believing with all his heart and soul and mind in the 
principles of Jeffersonian democracy, he was the unques- 



[119] 



Memori.\l Addresses : Senator Daniel 

tioned leader of his party in his State for over a genera- 
tion. His successes were at times tempered by defeats, 
but these did not embitter him nor dissuade him from 
his course. They seemed to inspire him to greater effort, 
until at last they were crowned with the full measure of 
success. 

As an orator he will be remembered so long as senti- 
ment is a moving cause to human action and the human 
heart responds to the appeals of pure eloquence. His 
style was that of a Cicero, copious and grateful, rather 
than of a Demosthenes, condensed and powerful. In 
incomparable beauty of language and purity of diction 
he interpreted the sentiments of his people. He drew from 
the history of all ages and from every nation and from 
the lives of great men of every tongue and clime the facts, 
the examples, the contrasts, the lessons, and the inspira- 
tion as from an inexhaustible mental reservoir with which 
to adorn a subject or point a moral. 

Just before Maj. Daniel entered upon his congressional 
career and before he became a national figure he repre- 
sented Virginia as one of the orators on the occasion of 
the dedication of the Washington Monument. I have 
been told that as one sentence followed close upon an- 
other in this great oration, Daniel seemed to grow in 
stature, until he loomed high above things terrestrial, 
and drew down, from the vaults of the celestial, language 
comprehensive of his great theme. In one of his eloquent 
paragraphs he said of the Father of his Countiy: 

Brilliant I will not call him, if the brightness of the rippling 
river exceed the solemn glory of Old Ocean. Brilliant I will not 
call him, if darkness must be visible in order to display the light; 
for he had none of that rocket-like brilliance which flames in 
instant coruscation across the black brow of night, and then is 
not. But if a steady, unflickering flame, slow rising to its lofty 
sphere, high hung in the heavens of contemplation, dispensing 



[120] 



Address of Mr. Slemp, of Virginia 



far and wide its rays, revealing all things on which it shines in 
the proportions and large relations, making right, duty, and 
destiny so plain that in the vision we are scarce conscious of 
the light — if this be brilliancy — then the genius of Washington 
was as full orbed and luminous as the god of day in his zenith. 

And his peroration! It breathed the very soul of 
patriotism and rose to the highest pinnacle of true 
eloquence. I will only quote a part of it: 

Long live the United States of America, filled with the free, 
magnanimous spirit, crowned by the wisdom, blessed by the 
moderation, hovered over by the guardian angel of Washington's 
example; may they ever be worthy in all things to be defended 
by the blood of the brave, who know the rights of man and shrink 
not from their assertion; may they each be a column, and alto- 
gether, under the Constitution, a perpetual temple of peace, un- 
shadowed by a Cffisar's palace, at whose altar may freely com- 
mune all who seek the union of liberty and brotherhood. 

Thenceforth Daniel took his rightful place, not alone as 
Virginia's greatest orator, but as belonging to the whole 
Nation. 

He was not only a gifted orator, but a profound lawyer, 
a leader of the bar, and an author of great distinction. 
The whole realm of law was explored by him, and in this 
vast theater his abilities had full play. Whether as ad- 
vocate or defender in the common-law causes or as ex- 
pounder or interpreter of the Federal Constitution, he 
was a distinguished authority. Practitioners at every 
bar, as well as students of the common law, in the years 
to come know and will know John Warwick Daniel for 
the legacies he left to the profession when he contributed 
to the bibliography of law the volumes entitled " Daniel 
on Negotiable Instruments" and "Daniel on Attach- 
ments." And the pages of congressional history will 
more than once be consulted, and interpretations by 
Daniel of constitutional questions be quoted as furnishing 
high authority. 

[121] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator Daniel 

As a statesman it was given to few men as it was to 
Daniel the influence and power to exercise the mastery 
over and to control the destinies of the people of a great 
Commonwealth as he exercised and controlled affairs in 
the State of Virginia. The people of that State were his 
willing followers. They loved and trusted him. They 
saw in him the reincarnation of illustrious sons who had 
made Virginia famous in the Nation's history. No honor 
within their gift was too great to bestow upon him. They 
chose him to represent them in high and exalted places — 
in both houses of the legislature, in constitutional conven- 
tions, in the National House, and in the United States 
Senate, in Democratic State and National conventions, 
and but for political exigencies and conditions would 
probably have been nominated by his party for Chief 
Executive of the Nation. 

The constitution of Virginia, many of its laws, much 
of the common-law practice of its courts, and the govern- 
ment of its municipalities reflect the judgment, the learn- 
ing, and the wisdom of John W. Daniel. Under his 
leadership, by his wise counsel and advice, his party in 
Virginia stood for the last quarter of a century true to 
the traditions and tenets of democracy as interpreted by 
national platforms, in the construction of whose planks 
Daniel was a potential factor. In the nature of things 
he left the impress of his magnetic personality and his 
rare genius upon the warp and woof of Virginia's social, 
political, and industrial life. That this can not also be 
said of him in its fullness as a national figure is due alone 
to the vicissitudes of the Democratic Party and to the 
limitations of the opportunities offered him in the wider 
field of national politics and not to the lack of anything 
in him that would have made for success if political con- 
ditions had been favorable for the crystallization of party 
principles into public policy. Yet, notwithstanding his 



[12 



Address of Mh. Slemp, or Virginia 



political environment, hostile and uncongenial as it was 
throughout the greater part of his service in Congress, 
Daniel wielded a tremendous influence in the shaping of 
legislation during two decades of service in the Senate. 

He was a State rights Democrat and for a strict con- 
struction of the Constitution, not in the narrow, circum- 
scribed sense that the terms might imply, but broadly, 
reasonably, in the light of that deep study to which he 
had given the subject. The line of demarcation between 
the powers of the several States and the powers of the 
National Government was plain to him, and he defined 
and elucidated those powers with a distinctness and clear- 
ness of diction that carried conviction. He was as zeal- 
ous in preserving the one as the other, and in this showed 
a degree of statesmanship that lifted him far above the 
plane of partisanship and provincialism and stamped him 
as a safe, sound, and wise publicist, who would insist 
upon the sovereignty of the Nation as well as of the States. 
This was best exemplified in the great Chicago strike, 
when President Cleveland, without response to an invi- 
tation from the governor of the State of Illinois, sent 
troops to quell the riots so that the United States mails 
could pass. 

Maj. Daniel sustained the action of the President, and 
in support of a resolution indorsing his action, said, in 
part, as follows : 

Mr. President, I had hoped that such a resolution as this in a 
time of public peril like that which now confronts us would pass 
the Senate without objection, without delay, without debate. 

There are some things which go without saying, and it should 
go without saying that this is not a matter on which parties may 
fairly divide. He who brings in the name of party in a partisan 
sense, whether it be Republican, Democratic, or Populist, forgets 
due recognition of his duty as a patriot. 

In this resolution I have simply summarized the provisions of 
the Constitution which bear directly on the existing situation, 

[123] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator Daniel 

and which point the pathway of duty to the President; and I have 
given expression to that sense of approbation of his course which 
pervades all classes of thinking and patriotic citizens. 

I am a State rights Democrat, who would not like to see the 
muniments of local self-government overriden. But I am also 
a national Democrat, who would not like to see the muniments 
of national authority and national safety destroyed. 

Anarchy is no remedy for anything. It intensifies every evil 
that exists. It impedes every remedial process. It should be 
stamped out wherever it shows itself. 

The President is Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy. 
He has the plain right, and it is his plain duty, to employ them 
whenever and wherever the Constitution and laws of the Federal 
Government are forcibly resisted by combinations of men. 

The establishment of post offices and post roads and the trans- 
portation of the mails through and by them is a Federal matter. 
Commerce among the States — interstate commerce, as distin- 
guished from local intrastate commerce — is a Federal matter. 

The due process of law in the Federal courts is a Federal 
matter. And in all three of these matters the President, having 
imposed upon him the constitutional obligation to " take care 
that the laws be faithfully executed," has the right to use the 
Army and Navy to that end, and to oppose force by force. 

I am the friend, and have often been the champion of those 
who work for their daily bread. My sympathy is with them. 
But they can have no lot or share with anarchists, the destroyers 
of property, the destroyers of life, the breakers of law, the ene- 
mies of peace, order, and civilized existence. They have no place 
in the ranks of incendiaries, and they have no enemy who can 
be so fatal to their every interest as those who seek to fire them 
into defiance of law. 

The President is right in dealing promptly with lawbreakers. 
He ought to be upheld and cordially and unstintedly supported 
here, as he will be throughout this land, by upright and law- 
abiding citizens. 

Sections and parties disappear in the face of society imperiled. 
We should know only the country, the Constitution, and the 
laws; and, as the President says, in such an emergency discussion 
may be well postponed. Peace, order, and obedience to law are 
the conditions precedent to discussion; with them assured, griev- 
ances will be heard, rights protected, and wrongs redressed. 

[124] 



Address of Mr. Slemp, of Virginia 



These are words of a statesman and patriot. Rising 
above the political conditions of that hour, unmindful of 
the effect upon his own or his party's future. Senator 
Daniel was for upholding the arm of the Federal Gov- 
ernment for the protection of life and property against a 
condition of anarchy which supine and indifferent, if not 
to say sympathetic. State authorities made no serious 
attempt to suppress. 

While he was distinguished in so many lines of useful 
endeavor, as orator, statesman, soldier, scholar, and 
lawyer, he was preeminent as a Christian gentleman. 
His was the atmosphere of benignity, self-effacement, and 
Christian charity. It has been said by one of his admirers 
that his Christian nature and his fighting spirit were 
combined compatibly. 

While I did not belong to his political party nor look 
upon national problems from the same point of view as 
he did, yet I always regarded him as a valiant and an 
honorable foe. Our differences were never mentioned, 
and I entertained for him the warmest personal regard. 
I have seen him on the hustings proclaiming the prin- 
ciples of his party; I have listened to his matchless elo- 
quence in paying tribute to a departed comrade; I have 
gone with him in presenting matters to the President of 
the United States; and I have observed him in the great 
intellectual forum where he spent so many years of his 
useful life. Under all the circumstances he was the same 
calm, dignified man, considerate of the wishes of others, 
powerful in argument, and persuasive in speech. I feel 
the better for having known him. I feel tlie better for 
what he was and for what he is. What is mortal of him 
has returned to the dust from which he was formed, but 
his immortal soul, the life of the man himself — that which 
moved and lived and had its being here— still lives, and 



[125] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator Damei, 

will live through eternity. In this he believed, in this I 
believe, without which belief we are of all men miserable. 

For his character and example and greatness among 
men; for the hand of cordial friendship and good will 
held out to me when first I came a stranger to these Halls; 
for the sake of mj' revered father, who served in the Con- 
federac}' at the same time as Maj. Daniel; for his gal- 
lantry in the vanquished cause of the Southland; and for 
his lofty, patriotic love for our common and reunited 
country I honor and revere his memorj'. 

May he rest from his labors, and may his works follow 
liim. 

Mr. Lamb assumed the chair as Speaker pro tempore. 



[126] 



Address of Mr. Flood, of Virginia 

Mr. Speaker: The flower which I would lay upon the 
tomb of Senator Daniel is the forget-me-not, the emblem 
of enduring affection. I knew him well; I esteemed him 
most highly; I cherished for him a sentiment that was 
closer than esteem and partook of the attributes of sacred 
confidence and warm personal aifection. 

When I entered the Virginia Legislature a youth of 22 
years he was a United States Senator from Virginia and 
was my friend, my counselor, and adviser. From that 
day to the hour when his enfranchised spirit entered that 
undiscovered country from whose bourne no traveler 
returns my relations with him were close. I was his de- 
voted follower and admirer, and I have grieved deeply 
at the loss which I sustained in his death. 

It is, Mr. Speaker, indeed a tribute to our better nature 
to be grieved when our friends depart from among the 
living. Our humanity would not be worth the having 
without this attribute; but as we stand by the graves of 
our friends we are comforted by the counsel of the Holy 
Writ, "Not to sorrow for them that are asleep even as 
those who have no hope." 

We all, sir, have our natural ambitions to act well our 
parts among our fellows; we are emulous to do our State 
some service, but there are few of us whose best and 
supremest aspiration is not to leave the world a little 
darkened at our departure. Senator Daniel's death 
caused widespread sorrow in his State and in this Nation. 
When the wires flashed the sad tidings a pall of gloom 
was cast over the entire State of Virginia and that pall 



[127] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator Daniel 

has not yet been lifted. No son of Virginia among all the 
splendid galaxy of her great men was more universally 
loved in life or more deeply mourned in death. The 
people of Virginia loved him because he loved them. 
They were true to him because he was true to them. 
They honored him because in so doing they honored 
themselves. 

John Warwick Daniel was born in the city of Lynch- 
burg, Va., on September 5, 1842. His home was in that 
city and on his farm on its outskirts during his entire 
life. He came of a long line of distinguished people. 
His grandfather, William Daniel, sr., was a lawyer of 
great ability and one of the most magnetic and bril- 
liant debaters and orators Virginia has produced. His 
father, William Daniel, jr., was a distinguished lawyer, 
and for years was a member of the Supreme Court of 
Appeals of Virginia. His mother was of the noted War- 
wick family. 

He was educated in the private schools of Lynchburg, 
at the Lynchburg College, and the Gessner Harrison 
School, of Nelson, and after the war studied law at the 
University of Virginia, where he distinguished himself in 
the classroom and in the debating society. A commence- 
ment oration — " The People " — delivered while a student 
at this institution sent him forth into the world a marked 
and distinguished man. 

While he was at the school of Prof. Harrison the Vir- 
ginia ordinance of secession was passed. There was no 
hesitation on the part of the young student of 18 to go 
with his State in her ultimate decision. As soon as the 
call of Virginia rang out through the hills and valleys of 
the old Commonwealth, summoning her sons to her de- 
fense, the first among the foremost to rally to her side 
was this ardent schoolboy. As a soldier he was distin- 
guished for reckless courage, an accurate knowledge of 

[128] 



Address of INIr. Flood, of Virginia 



military affairs, and for untiring and loyal devotion to 
every duty imposed upon him. He was a private, a sec- 
ond lieutenant, a first lieutenant, and a major and chief 
of staff of Gen. Jubal A. Early. He was wounded five 
times, three times at the first battle of Manassas, again 
at Boonsboro, Md.; and at the Wilderness, on May 6, 
1864, while gallantly leading the charge of the Thirty- 
third Regiment of the old Stonewall Brigade, he received 
the cruel wound which sent him limping through life and 
darkened all of his days with suffering and pain. There 
on the blood-stained field, when full high rolled the crim- 
son tide of battle, he fell, a hero, while his comrades 
swept on to victoi-y. This wound ended his military 
service, and but for this fact it is believed that he would 
have been made a brigadier general soon after the Battle 
of the Wilderness, and that his military career would 
have been as brilliant as in subsequent years his career 
in civil life was. 

But, Mr. Speaker, it was not alone in the times which 
tried men's souls that the patriotism and devotion of 
Senator Daniel to Virginia was conspicuous. When the 
war was over and unprincipled adventurers from without 
and renegades from within came like a pestilence to 
blight the small remnants we had left from the sword 
and torch, he was the leader in the defense of the heritage 
and institutions of his people. 

Amid the anarchy of the reconstruction period, down 
through all the great struggles for the supremacy of 
virtue and intelligence in the control of our Government, 
and for the preservation of society and Anglo-Saxon 
civilization to 1902, when this danger to these was swept 
away by a constitution germinating in the hearts of the 
Virginia people and fashioned by a convention of their 
own choosing, it was he who stood forth as Virginia's 
greatest champion. 



1004°— 11 9 [129] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator Daniel 

Though left by the storms of war with body liroken 
and fortunes spent, yet in every struggle between Vir- 
ginia and her foes, foreign or domestic, he wa% always 
on the firing line, and with voice and mind and means 
aggressivel}^ maintained her cause. 

For 30 years he was the undisputed leader of the Vir- 
ginia Democracy, and the most prominent figure in our 
party conventions; and in addition to this, he was the 
most beloved citizen of the State. This love for Senator 
Daniel was confined to no particular sections, but fi-om 
where the billowy Atlantic washes our eastern front, to 
the lofty ridge which receives its name from the bending 
heavens that bathe its summits in their own soft blue, 
and beyond to where the Cumberland Range marks our 
remotest western border; everywhere the citizens of Vir- 
ginia vied with one another in unbounded admiration 
and love for the noble gentleman, the maimed Confed- 
erate soldier, the brilliant orator, the profound constitu- 
tional lawyer, the sound statesman, whom they delighted 
to acknowledge as their unchallenged leader. 

STATESMANSHIP 

Senator Daniel early entered public life. He served 
in the Virginia House of Delegates from 1869 to 1871, in 
the State Senate from 1875 to 1881, and in the constitu- 
tional convention of Virginia of 1901-2. His service in 
these bodies was brilliant and was productive of much 
good legislation. He was the author of the franchise pro- 
vision of the present constitution of the State, and its 
adoption was secured by reason of his great influence 
with the convention. Through his service in these bodies 
his constructive statesmanship was woven into the very 
warp and woof of the laws of his native State. He served 
two years in this body and 23 years at the other end of 
the Capitol as a Senator from Virginia, and at the time of 



ri30] 



Address ov Mr. Flood, of Viiuiima 



his death, though he had not served out his fourth term, 
he had hccn reelected for a fifth term. For years he was 
one of the great members of the Committees on Foreign 
Relations, Appropriations, and Finance of the Senate, and 
was potential in the settlement of all matters affecting 
our relations with foreign countries and the appropria- 
tions and revenues of this Government. His ability as a 
debater and his complete knowledge of public questions 
made him a leading figure on the floor of the Senate, and 
gained him a national reputation which gave him in the 
minds of the public the place he so well deserved, as one 
of the greatest of American statesmen. He was for years 
prominent in the Democratic national conventions, and 
was influential in shaping the policies of that party. 

LAWYER 

Senator Daniel was a great and learned lawyer. When 
25 years of age he published a work on "Attachments," 
which is to-day found in every well-equipped law libraiy 
in Virginia, and later on he published a work on " Nego- 
tiable Instruments," in two large volumes, which is con- 
stantly quoted by the courts of last resort, both in this 
country and in England. For years he had a large prac- 
tice in the State and Federal courts of Virginia and in the 
Supreme Court of the United States. Whether in the 
trial or appellate court, he was always ready. He was 
thorough in the preparation and magnificent in the pres- 
entation of a case. Some of his most powerful and 
impassioned speeches were at the bar when a question of 
law or evidence was unexpectedly sprung and when there 
was no opportunity for premeditation or special prepara- 
tion. In these passages he often reached an altitude of 
oratory and fierce invective that has not been surpassed 
since the great Roman orator drove Catiline in consterna- 
tion from the Senate, or when Pericles brought the display 
of Athenian eloquence to its highest pinnacle of splendor. 

[131] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator Daniel 



He was one of Virginia's great orators. That beautiful 
creation of his mind and heart, the oration on Lee deliv- 
ered at Lexington in 1883, had he no other monument 
to his genius, would mark him as one of the foremost 
orators of his generation. It is one of the masterpieces 
of our language, which will live for ages, yielding an 
inspiration to higher and nobler aspirations. Scores of 
triumphs nearly as great as this mark his career. His 
orations covered a wide field and are read with delight 
to-day by thousands. His oratoiy was of the richer st3'le 
of the old school and always delighted and enchanted 
his hearers. 

It is not easy, Mr. Speaker, to decide in the display of 
his magnificent powers whether in the forensic field or 
in the arena of oratory our admiration is the more 
excited; for by a rare comljinalion he may be said to have 
united in his splendid personality the encomiums which 
Cicero divided between the two most distinguished citi- 
zens of Rome when he declared the one to be the orator 
most learned in the law and the other the lawyer most 
I'cnowned for oratory. 

Senator Daniel was warm in his friendships, and not 
only had very devoted admirers, but there were many 
who, in the words employed by Ben Jonson toward the 
Bard of Avon, "loved him to idolatn,'," and this was 
largely because they believed so implicitly in his integrity 
and his loyalty to his convictions. In a day when the 
commercial spirit threatened to dominate our land, it 
was pleasant to turn to this thoughtful figure, this idealist, 
whose dreams and aspirations were not controlled by the 
pulsations of the stock market nor measured by the 
stunted standard of present successes. His voice never 
delivered an uncertain sound. 



[132] 



Address oi' Mh. Flood, of Virc.ima 



Such, Mr. Speaker, in meager outline was the career of 
Senator Daniel. It was indeed a high and a fine career 
of service to mankind, than which there is nothing higher 
beneath the circuit of the sun. Sucli aims and ends con- 
stitute the only real royalty, for — 

Herein stands the ofTice of a king, 
His honor, virtue, merit, and chief praise. 
That for the public all this weight he bears; 
Yet he who reigns within himself and rules 
Passions, desires, and fears is more than king. 

No questionable act ever marked the fair pages of his 
private or public life. He stood in the fierce light which 
beats against the throne, but no flaw was ever found in 
his armor through which the shafts of envy and slander 
could enter and wound his fame. He was gentle yet 
strong, courteous yet brave, ready to extend the soft 
hand of charity and grasp with comprehensive thought 
the great questions of government and law. It is of such 
a man that the greatest of ancient philosophers aflirmed — 

The man of great soul is one who accounts himself worthy of 
great things, being worthy. 

How far removed from this noble aphorism is the 
wretched plaint of Solomon : 

Surely man at his best estate is vanity. 

Mr. Speaker, man at his best estate is thrilled with inti- 
mations of immortality. Death to a man like Senator 
Daniel is but a shadow cast by his transition to loftier 
activities — 

He is not dead but sleepeth; well we know 

The form that now lies mute beneath the sod 

Shall rise when time the golden bugles blow 
And pour their music through the courts of God. 



[133] 



MiiMOHiAL Addresses : Senator Daniel 

Tn his essay upon death Lord Bacon has pictured that 
of Senator Daniel: 

He that dies in an earnest pursuit is like one that is wounded 
in hot blood; who for the time scarce feels the hurt, and there- 
fore a mind fixed and bent upon somewhat that is good doth 
divert the troubles of death. Death hath this also, that it openeth 
the gate to good fame and extinguisheth envy. 

Mr. Speaker, during the dreadful Sepoy mutiny in India, 
when the English garrison in Lucknow, with the women 
and cliildren, was beleaguered by its ferocious and merci- 
less foes and the fate of tlie Cawnpore seemed staring 
them in the face, a cry was heard from the little Scotch 
lassie, Jeannie Brown: " Dinna ye hear the pibroch; dinna 
ye hear the slogan! " Her eager and alert ear had caught 
from afar the sound of the bagpipes in the approacliing 
army of Sir Colin Campbell. 

And so, while our hearts are attuned to sorrow that a 
life frauglit with so much good should be cut off from 
among us, our chastened reflections can discern echoes 
of counsel and encouragement from his life which should 
animate us all to a renewed and higher consecration to 
worthy and unselfish devotion to our countrj' and our 
kind. And whilst among the perplexities of this world 
we " can not always see the way," we can all become 
better and stronger from the example of such a life; and 
with pride and gratitude for such a career, we can cry 
to our Father and his Father: 

Lord, I believe; lielp Thou mine unbelief, 
And grant Thy servant such a life and death. 



[134] 



Address of Mr. Simmons, of New York 

Mr. Speaker : Nothing has occurred since my member- 
ship of this body which has filled my heart with such 
profound grief as the death of Senator John W. Daniel. 

I have listened to-day with the keenest interest to the 
loving words that have been spoken of him by my col- 
leagues on this floor, and I feel that such words have come 
from hearts that beat in sore affliction over the loss of a 
life which was not only dear to the people of his native 
State, but an irreparable loss to all qf the people of our 
Nation. 

For many years I was a resident of the great State of 
Virginia, residing in the sixth congressional district of 
that Commonwealth. The first vote I ever cast for a can- 
didate for Congress was given to John W. Daniel. The 
many years of my residence in his district gave me the 
opportunity to know him well, and therefore I could not 
refrain from coming here to-day and joining my col- 
leagues in paying a tribute to his memory. 

I have never known a man in public life who was so 
universally idolized by the people as Senator Daniel. 
His sweetness of disposition, purity of life, and nobility 
of character made him the ideal citizen, statesman, and 
patriot. 

The great State of Virginia has furnished the Nation 
many illustrious men, whose achievements in public life 
have covered them with a halo of gloiy, but the memoiy 
of the life and influence of Senator Daniel will ever 
record him a position in that Commonwealth as one of 
the first among the greatest, one of the highest among the 
best. 

[135] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator Daniel 

In my early life spent in Virginia I learned to idolize 
him, as did all of the people of that Commonwealth, and 
my love and affection for him has ever increased as his 
rise to position and fame. 

So great has been the confidence of the people of Vii*- 
ginia in his wisdom and judgment, so profound their 
admiration for his intellect and statesmanship, so loyal 
their affection for his stainless character, that he has, for 
a generation, been the friend and mentor of all. 

His death meant a personal loss to each of us. His 
ability, his devotion to the country, his high character 
we love to recall. He was beloved b}' all who knew him, 
and to those of us who serve in this body his death leaves 
a place in our ranks which can not be filled. 

His ambition was to serve his country according to his 
highest standard of dutj', and he died as he had lived, 
faithful to the people to the last, leaving a name that will 
hereafter always be found in the list of the ablest, the 
most useful, and most honored of its citizens. 

By precept and example he contributed to the virtue 
and morality of eveiy circle he entered; truth, I'ight, and 
justice were always present with him. But he lives not 
alone in the loving hearts of friends and families, but in 
the blessed influence he left behind, which will help to 
make in his own image the lives of those who come after 
him. His wisdom, eloquence, and powers of argument 
were unsurpassed by any man that I have ever known; 
in fact, his eloquence and earnestness were simply irre- 
sistible; and I have never known a public speaker who 
could more effectively cliarm and delight an audience 
than Senator Daniel. His life has been safely entwined 
within the affectionate gratitude and loyal remembrance 
of everyone who knew him. 



[136] 



Address of Mr. Brantley, of Georgia 

Mr. Speaker: John Warwick Daniel, late a Senator 
from the Commonwealth of Virginia, came into life on 
September 5, 1842, and passed away in death on June 29, 
1910. His days upon earth were a little under the allotted 
three score years and ten given to man, but in them he 
lived an extraordinai-y full life. The deeds he wrought by 
tongue and pen and sword illumine the pages of our 
country's history. 

Springing from a long line of illustrious ancestry and 
cradled in the arms of the Old Dominion State, much was 
to have been expected of him, and much he gave. Great 
is the handicap of him who in our day and in his day, 
claiming Virginia for a mother, seeks to climb the hill of 
fame, for there is no State within the Republic so rich in 
illustrious names as is Virginia. In these names is written 
that of which our countiy is proudest in law, in govern- 
ment, and in patriotism. Such names as Washington, 
Jefferson, Madison, Marshall, Henry, Lee, Randolph, Tyler, 
Jackson, and many others that could be mentioned belong 
to the Nation. Virginia begot them, but the Nation claims 
them. They are a part of our history. The fact that Sen- 
ator Daniel, with the handicap of these names, carved one 
for himself worthy and proper to take its place beside 
them is perhaps the most significant event of his great 
career. It is characteristic of human nature, be it a fault 
or a virtue, to unduly magnify the achievements of those 
who have passed beyond life's estate and into the realms 
of eternity, but none who knew Senator Daniel and none 



[137] 



Memorial Addresses : Senator Daniel 

who read after him will assent that his just fame can 
be magnified. His was a wonderful personality in the 
variety of the great talents given him. There have been 
great oi'ators, but how many great orators have also been 
great soldiers and great law writers? There have been 
great advocates in the courthouse, but how many of them 
have also written learned treatises on the law? 

Senator Daniel had eloquence, but to eloquence he 
added learning; to learning he added patriotism; and to 
patriotism he added courage. He was possessed, too, of a 
courtliness of manner that added much to the charm of 
his striking personality. He was soldier, statesman, ora- 
tor, and lawyer. He was all of these in one and one in all. 
In each vocation he wrote his name high on the scroll of 
fame. Entering the Confederate Army at 18 years of age 
in the ranks of the privates, he was discharged after the 
Battle of the Wilderness wounded for life, with the rank 
of major and chief of staff. His courage and daring, his 
alertness, and his masteiy of the science of war, all fore- 
casted still liigher military rank for him could he have 
remained in the service. 

His book, Daniel on Negotiable Instruments, is known 
to every la^^wer and eveiy court in our land, while his 
book on "Attachments " is also widely known. His serv- 
ices as a statesman are to be found in the records of both 
branches of his State legislature and in both branches of 
the National Congress. For 23 years he sat in the Senate, 
and although he had not completed his fourth term there, 
he had already been elected to a fifth. His voice was 
often heard in clear, logical, and eloquent debate. It was 
as a persuader of men by his marvelous gift of speech that 
he was most widely known. Whether in the forum of the 
Senate or the bar, on the hustings, in our national conven- 
tions, or on memorial occasions he was ever the one man 
eloquent " at whose feet all could sit and leai'n the art of 



[1381 



AnnitEss of Mr. Brantley, of Georcia 



eloquence." But to me the greatest charm about him was 
that his superb powers were always directed toward incul- 
cating patriotism and to the preservation of our Govern- 
ment as it was written. He believed in the Declaration of 
Independence as Jefferson penned it; he loved the glo- 
rious country that Washington "saved"; and he trusted 
to the uttermost the Constitution of which Madison was 
the " father." 

The evil of the day in which we live is that we are so far 
removed from the formation of our Government that too 
many have forgotten, if they ever knew, why or how it 
was formed. The people, as they reach maturity, see a 
government around and about them, but whence it came 
or how it is to be maintained too few stop to inquire. The 
work of the fathers of the Republic was an open book to 
Senator Daniel. He knew that when they came to build 
our Government they had before them the models of all 
the Governments of all the world, and setting them all 
aside, planned one the like of which the world had never 
seen. Senator Daniel knew the fathers deliberately re- 
jected the plan of a pure democracy, because it had failed 
in the republics of old, and builded instead a representa- 
tive government. He knew that they purposely divided 
the powers of government into three great departments, 
the legislative, executive, and judicial, and he knew why 
they did so. He also knew why they divided the govern- 
ment of the State and the Nation, giving to each a power 
of its own and making each in its proper sphere independ- 
ent of the other, and thus created a dual government. 

Ignorance of our histoiy and ignorance of our Govern- 
ment has suggested the most of the new " isms " of govern- 
ment so prevalent in the discussions in our day. If all 
knew the histoiy of each part of our Government and 
understood the wonderful checks and balances in its for- 
mation, there would be no clamor to change it in any fun- 



[139] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator Daniel 

damental respect. To convert a representative Govern- 
ment of over 92,000,000 people into a pure democracy 
would be to substitute for the present Government one of 
brutal tyranny bj' a majority over a great minoritj% result- 
ing in rebellions and revolutions such as have stained the 
fair name of other lands in all the ages of the world. Our 
written Constitution, without an independent judiciaiy 
to construe it and enforce it, would soon be but so much 
waste paper. The State government was designed to 
keep the people in close touch with that government deal- 
ing directly with their local affairs, while through their 
chosen Representatives they would always have a voice 
in the affairs of the Nation. The power of government 
was purposely distributed between three great depart- 
ments, each the equal of the other, so that the one would 
ever be a check upon the other and arbitrary power be 
forever unknown. 

No patriotic citizen will contend that conditions to-day 
are ideal and can not be improved upon, nor did Senator 
Daniel so contend. His contention was that we should 
hold fast to that which we know to be good, and instead 
of seeking a pure Democracy with its initiative, referen- 
dum, and recall we should I'estore to the State government 
all of its constitutional functions and restrict the National 
Government within the limitations prescribed for it by 
the Constitution, and in doing so see to it that the three 
great departments of Government neither one encroaches 
the one upon the other and that our judiciary, the last 
refuge of liberty, is kept forever free and independent. 

Senator Daniel knew but too well that the safctj' of our 
Republic rests upon the patriotic intelligence of the people. 
He learned this from the teachings of Thomas Jefferson, 
and his evei-y environment in historic Virginia confirmed 
it. Patriotism is a vital necessity for the preservation of 
liberty and constitutional government, but patriotism to 



[140] 



Adoress of ]M«. Brantley, of Georgia 

be effective must be accompanied by intelligence. These 
thoughts come naturally and uncontrollably in reviewing 
the life of Senator Daniel, for they are thoughts embodied 
in his life and teachings. He was one of the grand figures 
in our legislative government. He came to manhood's 
estate to be at once baptized in fire and blood. His man- 
hood was early tried. His devotion to his mother State 
and his patriotism were early tested and proved. All the 
problems of war and of peace came to him for solution, 
and as they came they found his patriotism and his master 
mind read3\ His environment, his experience, his train- 
ing, and his heritage all combined to make him the true 
patriotic statesman that he was. He contributed greatly 
to his country's glory; he did much to ennoble and enthuse 
his fellows; and he did his full share in molding and di- 
recting public sentiment along patriotic lines. Constitu- 
tional government owes something to him for its preserva- 
tion thus far, and all of us who labored with him and are 
yet left to serve are the better able to do our humble parts 
because of the inspiration of his teaching and example. 
His people honored him greatly, and greatly he honored 
them. His name and his fame here, at home, and through- 
out the land must be secure as long as love of liberty and 
devotion to Republican institutions live in the hearts of 
the people. 



[141] 



Address of Mr. Small, of North Carolina 

Mr. Speaker: When we gather to pay tribute to the 
achievements and memoiy of a man, particularly one 
whose life was largely devoted to the public service, it is 
a happy reflection to feel that our admiration and love 
is universally shared by the people whom he directly 
served and by those of the whole countiy so fortunate 
as to claim personal acquaintance or familiarity with his 
career. Such a relation do we and others sustain toward 
the late John W. Daniel, the distinguished citizen and so 
long a Senator from the State of Virginia. 

Some men command applause for their genius. Some 
compel admiration for their intellectual acumen, their 
persistence, and forcefulness; some for the material 
things they have wrought. Others by their high ideals 
and tine character exact our respect and consideration. 
But it is only given to the few to receive as a voluntary 
tribute the love and affection of a whole people, to possess 
their entire confidence and trust. 

I shall not attempt even in a brief way to recount the 
achievements of this distinguished Virginian. As a sol- 
dier he offered the verj- flower of his youth to the service 
of the people of his State, and his life, if need be, was 
tendered as a willing sacrifice for a cause they both be- 
lieved to be right. As a lawyer and law writer he brought 
to the service of this jealous mistress a goodly heritage of 
mental powers, which he developed by assiduous train- 
ing until his learning and breadth of knowledge made 
him a peer among a galaxy of eminent lawyers. As an 

[1421 



Address of Mr. S]^r.u.L, of North Carolina 

orator among a people where eloquence was indigenous 
and speech was tuned to music, his magnificent presence, 
his musical voice, his pure English, and his hroad culture 
placed him in rank with the most eminent orators of the 
Old Dominion. 

As a Senator he met the loftiest ideals in that great 
body and set the pace for distinguished service. 

As a statesman and publicist he brought to the public 
service a trained mind, a store of knowledge, a grounding 
in the principles of government, and such sane and whole- 
some ideals of a democracy as to make him wise in coun- 
sel, forceful in debate, and a potent factor in shaping 
necessaiy and constructive legislation. 

All these qualities and achievements have been de- 
scribed in these tributes in such terms and with such 
eloquence as I may not hope to emulate. 

I shall content myself with a brief reference to some of 
those qualities which marked Senator Daniel in his rela- 
tions and intercourse with his kind. No man in this world 
can get the things worth having, whether it be wealth, 
station, or fame, without at the same time making him- 
self a large debtor to this same world. The account must 
be reciprocal. This debt may be paid in various ways. 
Contributions may be made to those cooperative move- 
ments which seek to ameliorate evils or to elevate society. 
To the individual with whom he comes in contact he may 
extend the glad hand of succor and encouragement. To all 
he may make his presence a beacon of light and a sweet 
benediction. Senator Daniel, by reason of the eminence 
which he attained, became a large creditor of humanity, 
but he realized his obligation. Freely, generously, and 
insistently he made recompense. Day by day with lavish 
hand he carried joy and gladness. The years as they 
passed yielded useful fruitage in the promotion of many 
agencies for human betterment. By this life he drank 



[143] 



Memori.\l Addresses : Senator Daniel 

deep at the fountain of joyous contentment. While the 
people had accorded to him high position and the music 
of applause had often been sounded in his cars, his sweet 
spirit was not spoiled and his modestj' was unchanged. 
He knew that it was more blessed to give than to receive 
and that the highest distinction was exemplified in the 
spirit of service. There can be no doubt that out of his 
life he gave more than he received, and when the grim 
reaper came he left the world his debtor. 

I love to recall the personality of the man. While 
always stately and dignified in manner, yet there was 
nothing repellent or cold in his demeanor. Beneath the 
shield which repelled familiarity there was the gentle 
courtesj% the loving spirit, and the personal consideration 
which disarmed you in his presence and made you his 
friend. He was of the type of the Virginia gentleman, 
and there was no higher, and in truth it can be said no 
higher encomium can be paid to his mcmoiy. 

One of the most agreeable retrospections which can 
come to me is the recollection of my personal association 
with him. While neither frequent nor prolonged, yet 
there was never a time when I did not feel free to consult 
him on matters of serious import or to meet him in social 
converse. There were doubtless times when his daunt- 
less spirit was repressed or pain racked his body, but he 
never failed in the smile of recognition or forgot the 
amenities of a gentleman. 

In a recent conversation with another Virginian, also 
of distinguished ancestrj', he gave me an anonymous 
definition of a gentleman which may be fittingly applied 
to John Warwick Daniel : 

A knight whose armor is honor 
And whose weapon is courtesy. 



[1441 



Address of Mr. Saunders, of Virginia 

Mr. Speaker: The subject of these exercises was born 
in Lynchburg in September, 1842, and was fairlj' en- 
titled by heredity to the robustness of intellect and graces 
of character for which he was distinguished. On both 
sides of his house he came of distinguished lineage. His 
paternal grandfather, William Daniel, sr., was a cotem- 
porarj' of James Madison — serving with him in the Vir- 
ginia Legislature of 1799. He was conspicuous in the 
proceedings of two legislatures of which lie was a mem- 
ber and was one of the ablest judges of that day, achieving 
great distinction both as a judge of the circuit court and 
as a member of the court of criminal appeals, composed 
of the circuit judges of the entire State. 

Senator Daniel's father was William Daniel, jr., a 
scholar, legislator, and judge. At all times Virginians, 
especially Virginia la\%'>'ers, have been subject to the 
fascination of political life, and the most distinguished 
practitioners in that State have not found service in the 
house of delegates or the senate incompatible with the 
most assiduous and successful pursuit of the law. Hence 
it is not surprising to find that Judge Daniel, jr., like his 
father, served several terms in the general assembly 
before going on the bench. He was first elected to the 
house of delegates in 1831. His eminent abilities soon 
rendered him a conspicuous figure in that body. By 1846 
Judge Daniel had become one of the foremost men of 
Virginia, and during that j^ear was elected a judge of 
the supreme court of his State, a position which he filled 
with most distinguished ability for a number of years. 

]004'>— 11 10 [145] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator Daniei. 

Maj. Daniel's mother was Miss Sarah Anne Warwick, a 
daughter of John M. Warwick, who was a successful 
merchant in the city of Lynchburg. 

His home was the seat of a gracious and beautiful hos- 
pitality which was generously dispensed until the rav- 
ages of a cruel war swept away his large fortune. Judge 
Daniel's wife died young and John W. Daniel and his 
sister were, in substance if not in form, adopted by their 
maternal grandparents, who lavished upon them an afTec- 
tion which was ardently returned. In later years Maj. 
Daniel, in speaking of his grandfather, John M. War- 
wick, paid him a tribute that deserves to be reproduced 
in this connection: 

A nobler man never lived — hospitable, gentle, calm, self- 
poised — a gentleman in honor, in manners, and in innate refine- 
ment. A pure and lofty soul, he seemed to me to be everything 
that a man could be to be respected and loved. Successful from 
his youth in his business, with a mercantile " touch of gold," he 
v\as rich and generous, without pretension or pride; and when 
the end of the war prostrated his fortune and he became old and 
almost blind his easy dignity lost no feature of his serene com- 
posure and out of his true heart came no complaint of man or 
fortune. He accepted the dread issue of Appomattox without a 
murmur and took the fate of his people with all of the fortitude 
and manliness and with none of the show of the Roman Senators 
who saw the barbarians enter Rome. 

When the Civil War sounded its tocsin, Maj. Daniel, 
then a young man of 18, promptly volunteered his services 
and as a private entered a cavahy troop tlien organizing 
in his native city. At tlie time lie was the beau ideal of 
a young soldier. Straight as an arrow, handsome as a 
young god, with flashing eye and graceful carriage, he 
was indeed good to look upon. He was soon appointed 
second lieutenant and received his baptism of fire at 
Manassas. During this fight he was wounded twice, the 
second injury being a serious one, which incapacitated 



[146] 



AllDRCSS OF MH. SAlNDIifiS, OF VllUilMA 

him for service for several weeks. In liis first battle 
Maj. (then Lieut.) Daniel evinced that conspicuous gal- 
lantry for which he was distinguished during his entire 
militarj' career. 

Lieut. Daniel became Maj. Daniel and a staff officer in 
March, 1863. His active service covered a period of almost 
three years. During that time he participated in many 
great battles, serving mainly under Gen. Jubal A. Early, 
whom he extravagantly admired and was always ready 
to defend against any criticisms directed against his mili- 
tary conduct or capacity. This admiration was returned 
by Gen. Early, who looked upon him almost as a son and 
after the war followed his political fortunes with unceas- 
ing interest and unwavering support. While in the act of 
rallying a broken regiment at the Battle of the Wilderness, 
Maj. Daniel was severely wounded by a Minie bullet, 
which shattered his thigh. 

This wound terminated his military activities and per- 
manently crippled him. For the remainder of his life he 
bore the sequel of pain occasioned by this injury with 
uncomplaining fortitude. Later in his career, at a great 
political gathering in his native State, an enthusiastic ad- 
mirer referred to him as the " Lame Lion of Lynchburg." 
This name caught the popular fancy and clung to him 
from that time forward. It will always be associated with 
John W. Daniel by those who knew him in life. The mere 
sight of that stately figure, with its pathetic limp, ever 
served to set a Virginia audience aflame and interrupt 
whatever else was in progress by a storm of vociferous 
and spontaneous applause. 

After the war Maj. Daniel was without fortune or voca- 
tion. Naturally, he turned to that profession in wliich his 
father and grandfather had won such distinction and for 
which he possessed unusual gifts of mind and character. 
He entered that great school of law then presided over by 

[147J 



Memorial Addresses: Senator Daniel 

John B. Minoi" and prosecuted his studies with the energy 
which distinguished all his efforts. Shortly after leaving 
the university he formed a partnership with his father, 
which continued until the latter's death, in 1873. In the 
practice of his profession Maj. Daniel met with immediate 
success. Gifted in manj^ directions, studious, eloquent, 
splendidly ornate in illustrations, yet severely logical in 
argument, the richness of his reasoning and his compell- 
ing power of speech made him a power alike before the 
courts and juries. He was the author of two books which 
added greatly to his reputation as a lawyer — Daniel on 
Attachments and Daniel on Negotiable Instruments. 

The first was a compendious handbook chiefly designed 
for local use and extremely serviceable at the time; the 
other was on a more ambitious scale, and may be fairly 
styled a monumental work. The labor of its preparation 
was prodigious and its reception by the legal world most 
flattering. It is a recognized authority in the courts of 
Great Britain, the United States, and Canada, and has run 
through five editions. Maj. Daniel early felt the lure of 
politics. This was inevitable, for his ambitions i-an in 
tliis direction, but apart from personal inclination, he was 
almost forced into the political arena by the imperative 
demand that unsettled political conditions in Virginia 
made upon the services of all genuine patriots. This was 
a call that Maj. Daniel was the last man to ignore, and he 
volunteered for duty with the same ardor and enthusiasm 
with which he tendered his services to the cause of the 
Confederacy. He was first elected to the house of dele- 
gates in 1869, and served in that body for three years. 
Later he was elected to the State senate and reelected in 
1878. Maj. Daniel was twice a candidate for the nomina- 
tion for Congress in the old Lynchburg district and twice 
defeated. He was also defeated as a candidate for gov- 
ernor. The feeling in Virginia in 1881 over the local issue 

L148J 



Address of Mu. Saundi;hs, oi' Vihc.ima 

of readjusterism against fundcrism was intense. The re- 
adjusters nominated for governor William E. Cameron, a 
vigorous, able, and aggressive speaker. 

The Democrats turned to Maj. Daniel. Personally he 
was unwilling to become a candidate. The issue was 
doubtful and his private affairs required his unremitting 
attention. But the call to lead was imperative and obe- 
dience to its demand seemed a duty. Maj. Daniel was not 
the man to shirk a duty in any form and was as willing to 
lead a forlorn hope in a political engagement as on the 
pitched field of murderous battle. The campaign that 
followed was the most exciting ever conducted in Vir- 
ginia. At times it seemed as if by the sheer force of his 
intense and magnetic personality and the witchery of his 
eloquence jNIaj. Daniel would carry his party's flag to 
victory. But it was not to be. His opponent was elected 
by a large majority. But this contest fixed Maj. Daniel's 
place in the aflfections of his party, and from that time 
forward anything that he wanted of the Democrats of 
Virginia was his for the asking. 

In 1884 Maj. Daniel was elected to the House of Repre- 
sentatives, and before the expiration of his term was 
elected to the Senate, a position that he held at the time 
of his death, having just been unanimously reelected for 
the fourth time. In addition to these honors, Maj. Daniel 
was many times a delegate to the national conventions of 
his party, and the temporary chairman of the convention 
of 1896. In 1901 he was elected a member of the Virginia 
constitutional convention, and took a leading part in its 
deliberations. It is an open secret in that State that if he 
had allowed his friends to put him forward he would have 
been made president of the convention. 

This brief sketch of Maj. Daniel's life affords but an 
inadequate account of its honors and his activities in 
many directions. He was in constant demand for public 



[149] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator Daniel 

addresses, and his orations on these occasions would 
alone serve to establish his reputation as a great orator, 
one of the greatest tliat tliis country has produced. The 
greatest of these orations, the one perhaps that gave him 
the most instant reputation, was a memorable eulogy de- 
livered in Lexington in 1883, on the occasion of the unveil- 
ing of the recumbent statue of Gen. R. E. Lee. The effect 
of this address was thrilling and instantaneous. Its rich 
cadences lingered in the ears of his auditors like strains of 
sweet and solemn music, so that they were loath to leave 
the scene of their enchantment. Like Adam, on another 
occasion, they stood still, transfixed with wonder and 
delight. 

The angel ended, and in Adam's ear, 

So charming left his voice, that he awhile, 

Thought him still speaking, still stood transfixed to hear. 

But there are many other addresses that take close rank 
with this masterpiece, and will be included in the volume 
of his orations soon to be published. Perhaps there is no 
man in the United States who has made more speeches of 
a purely political character than Maj. Daniel. He was 
always at the call of his associates when a campaign was 
in progress, and in any community of Virginia where con- 
ditions were considered to be untoward, Maj. Daniel was 
put forward to speak for his party. Even after his posi- 
tion had become so assured that there was no occasion for 
him to " mend his fences," he relaxed in nowise his accus- 
tomed participation in the activities of the annually 
recurring political contests of his State. It was character- 
istic of this great man that he accepted defeat without 
bitterness. He brought no railing accusation against his 
party when he failed to secure the nominations to high 
office upon which he had set the hope of an honorable 
ambition. 



[150] 



Addhicss or Mr. Saunders, of Virginia 

Maj. Daniel was not equipped to attain popularity by 
the arts usually deemed essential. He was not a mixer. 
He maintained no organization, though an organization 
man. He was not a supple diplomatist. He never shirked 
an issue. He was plain, direct, straightforward, and unas- 
suming. He respected himself, and therefore respected 
others. To trickeiy in all its forms he was vehemently 
opposed. His nature was sincere and his heart as far 
from deceit as heaven from earth. Scorning any form of 
evasion or douhlc dealing, he was one of those rare na- 
tures who — 

Would not flatter Neptune for his trident, 
Or .Jove for his thunder. 

The meditations of his heart were never concealed by 
veiled or subtle forms of speech. He contemned the cyni- 
cal maxim of Talleyrand that speech was given to men to 
conceal their thoughts, and rejoiced to express his atti- 
tude on all questions requiring expression in terms that 
were incapable of misapprehension. Like the father of 
poesy, he could say: 

Hateful to me, as are the gates of hell, 
Is he, who hiding one thing in his heart, 
Utters another. 

But his utter frankness, his sincerity, his simplicity of 
nature, his free but courteous speech, drew men to liim 
and held their imaginations captive in bonds stronger 
than the most cunning artificer could forge for the physi- 
cal restraint of their persons. 

In Virginia Daniel was a sentiment. He occupied a 
unique position in our State. There was no rival near his 
throne. Secure in his hold upon our people, he was at 
once loved, admired, and revered. Some men are loved, 
others are admired, still others arc revered, but it is given 
to few to excite the three emotions on the largest and 

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Mic.MOHiAL Addhesses: Senator Daniel 

most generous scale. He was admired for the splendor of 
his glowing rhetoric, the variety and sweep of his thought, 
his copious diction, and his noble and stately eloquence. 
He was loved because he loved much. He was revered 
for his lofty conception of public and private duty, the 
Spartan character of his integrity, and the essential purity 
of his life. 

Maj. Daniel's capacity for work was marvelous and his 
industry unremitting. The combination of great natural 
powers and indefatigable application enabled him to ac- 
complish results that are little short of stupendous when 
we consider the demands constantly made upon his time 
by the exacting requirements of a public life that began 
when he was almost a boy, and the further fact that he was 
rarely free from gnawing pain, the legacy of honorable 
wounds. And yet we know that much of the world's best 
work has been done with pain as a constant companion. 
This was true in the case of the great preacher Hall, whose 
life was a long moan of agony. This was true in the case 
of many othei's whose waking moments were a ceaseless 
succession of racking torments. Maj. Daniel might have 
said, as a greater genius did say in pathetic reference to 
himself: " For years I have not had a day's real health. I 
have wakened sick and gone to bed weary; and 1 have 
done my work unflinchingly." That work to-day is a 
priceless treasure of this generation. Unflinchingly. 
Ah! That is the word. Unflinchingly. How well it 
describes Maj. Daniel's discharge of duty, his perform- 
ance of all tasks, whether self-imposed or not. In this 
unflinching attitude toward the day's work is found the 
secret of his success. The treasures of his learning were 
freely used in public speech. Drawing on the stores of a 
broad and generous culture, there was no subject which 
he touched that he failed to illumine and adorn. He 
had " the taste, the judgment, the erudition, the feeling for 



[152] 



Address of Mr. Saunders, ok Virginia 



the beautiful, the appreciation of the noble, and the sense 
of the profound," which enabled him at all times to quote 
well and copiously. 

He was ambitious, but his ambition was honorable 
aspiration to " do some valiant deed of which mankind 
should hear in aftertime." His was the ambition to 
achieve great things along the path of duty, not the vault- 
ing ambition that overleaps itself. He had a nature of 
whom friends and foes alike could say that: " If it be a 
sin to covet honor, he was the most offending soul alive." 
Maj. Daniel was intensely democratic and intensely pa- 
triotic. His vision was large and clear. He loved the Vir- 
ginia of the past, the Virginia of history and of tradition, 
but he did not live in the past. He was a vital part of the 
throbbing present. At times when absorbed in contem- 
plation he had the look of the mystic, but he was not a 
dreamer. He was strong, virile, and intense. When he 
struck, he struck hard. When he allowed his thoughts to 
range, they ranged widely. He did not hesitate " to lean 
over the rim " of the present, and — 

Dip into the future, far as tiuman eye could see. 

View the vision of the world, and all the wonder that would be. 

In public service his object was " his country, his whole 
country, and nothing but his country." Like Coriolanus, 
he could say: 

I do love my country's good with a respect more tender, more 
holy and profound than mine own life. 

In his relation to his constituents Maj. Daniel was frank- 
ness itself. He was too fond of the right to pursue the 
expedient. While never attacking his party or deriding 
his adversaries, he never allowed himself to be swept 
along by the force of a public opinion that ran counter to 
his judgment. He might defer to that opinion when such 
deference involved no surrender or abandonment of 

[153] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator Daniel 

principle, but his own attitude was always known — and 
he never hesitated to avow it, regardless of the possible 
effect upon his own personal fortunes. He possessed that 
courage wliich is the essential of high character; that 
courage of which it is said — 

Courage, the highest gift, that scorns to bend 

To mean devices for a sordid end. 

Courage, an independent spark from Heaven's bright throne. 

By which the soul stands raised, triumphant, liigh, alone. 

Great in itself, not praises of the crowd, 

Above all vice, it stoops not to be proud. 

Courage, the mighty attribute of powers above. 

By which those great in war are great in love. 

The spring of all brave acts is seated here, 

As falsehoods draw their sordid birth from fear. 

His ideals were not reserved for tlie closet or for ab- 
stract contemplation. He conformed the activities of 
daily life to their requirements. 

Slander, whose edge is sharper than the sword, never 
touched Senator Daniel. It is often said that envy assails 
the noblest, and the winds howl around the highest peaks. 
But there was something in the grave and stately decorum 
of Maj. Daniel's life that quenched the fiery darts of 
malice and stilled the winds of detraction. He was never 
ashamed to meet the eyes of other men, for in liis whole 
life there was no act of which he needed to feel ashamed. 
Like the great Pitt, he wrapped himself in the mantle of 
his integrity. Secure within its ample and spotless folds, 
he dared his adversaries to do their worst. The wliite 
light beat upon him, but revealed no spot. He lived a 
pure and noljle life until the time arrived when — 

He gave his honors to the world again, 
His blessed heart to heaven — 

and the soldier was at rest. 

[1541 



Address of Mr. Saunders, of Virginia 

He was not the type of public man whom the Roman 
satii'ist had in mind when he penned his famous lines: 

Get place, and wealth, if possible, with grace. 
If not, by any means, get place, and wealth. 

Inevitably the words of the Psalmist recur to us when 
we recall the life and public career of Maj. Daniel. He 
lived an uncorrupt life; he did the thing that was right; 
he spoke the truth from his heart. 

Maj. Daniel was never ruffled by adversity, but bore 
prosperity and adversity alike, with moderation. His life 
was marked by that high seriousness which Aristotle has 
noted as an invariable accompaniment of preeminence. 
All of his work was characterized by diligent and careful 
preparation. He was not a frequent participant in the 
current debates of the Senate, though well able to main- 
tain himself with dignity and credit. As pointed out by 
Senator Lodge in his beautiful and discriminating eulogy, 
" he liked large issues, because they afforded the widest 
opportunity for speculation as to causes, and for visions 
of the future." Maj. Daniel's style of speech was rich 
at all times and in early life florid. He loved to deal 
in tropes and figures, and in his vivid utterances were 
realized " the thoughts that breathe and words that burn." 
He possessed in abundant measure that exuberant imagi- 
nation which bodies forth the forms of things unknown, 
and the poet's pen which " turns them to shapes and gives 
to airy nothings a local habitation and a name." But as 
time passed his style became more austere, so that his 
logic was more observed than the form of words in which 
it was expressed or the illustrations with which his argu- 
ments were adorned. In the ordinai-y relations of life 
Maj. Daniel was sincere, courteous, frank, and dignified. 
These traits have been noted by all his eulogists. In this 
connection it is not amiss to cite Senator Lodge again, for 



[155] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator Daniel 

the beauty of his tribute testifies to the depth of the im- 
pression made upon the statesman from Massacliusetts 
by the charm of Maj. Daniel's personality. 

" The grave courtesy of his manner, which never 
wavered, had to me a peculiar charm. I should not for a 
moment think of liinting even that the manners now gen- 
erally in vogue are not better, but they are certainly 
different. Manners like those of Senator Daniel, I sup- 
pose, would be thought to take too much time, both in 
acquisition and practice, among a generation which can 
employ its passing hours more usefully. Yet I can not 
divest myself of the feeling, an inherited superstition, per- 
haps, that manners such as his — serious, gracious, elabo- 
rate, if you please, but full of kindness and thought for 
others — can never really grow old or pass out of fashion." 

Maj. Daniel was not rich, as men count riches. He died 
as he had lived, poor in worldly goods, but rich in the 
approving favor of his cotemporaries, in friendship's 
smiles and the affectionate regard of his intimates. He 
bequeathed a stainless life to his children, a noble herit- 
age, one more to be desired than fine gold. 

Maj. Daniel was a devoted husband and an affectionate 
father. As a statesman he translated into the discharge 
of public duties those virtues which adorned his family 
relations. In this ideal private and family life may be 
found the key to the beauty of his public career. It was 
long ago pointed out by iEschines, in a memorable ora- 
tion, that: He who hates his own children, he who is a 
bad parent, can not be a good leader of the people. He 
^\ ho is insensible to the duties which he owes to those who 
are nearest and who ought to be dearest to him, will never 
feel a higher regard for the welfare of those who are 
strangers to him. He who acts wickedly in private life, 
can never be expected to show himself noble in his public 
conduct. He who is base at home, will not acquit himself 



[156] 



Address of Mr. Saunders, of Virginia 

with honor when sent to a foreign country in a pul)lic 
capacity; for it is not the man, but the place merely that 
is changed. It was the genuine quality of Maj. Daniel's 
patriotism and his sensitive regard for duty which im- 
pressed all who came into relation with him in liis public 
capacities. 

Maj. Daniel's style was copious, lucid, and flowing. His 
arguments were richlj' broidered with gems of fancy and 
erudition. In his lighter vein when he ranged from grave 
to gay, from lively to severe, he was charming, with a most 
pleasing and attractive humor and many deft and happy 
turns of speech. But he never lost the grave dignity of his 
manner, or, with infinite jest, undertook to " set the table 
on a roar." 

His eloquence, brightening whatever it tried, 
Whether reason, or fancy, the gay or the grave. 

Was as rapid, as deep, and as brilliant a tide 
As ever bore freedom aloft on its wave. 

He had the ear of the Senate whenever he rose to speak, 
for he never failed to bring to his subject the results of 
wide reading, profound reflection, and careful study. 
Most fitly may that be said of him which he said 
of another: He was not the servant of personal ambition 
or of private ends. He was faithful to truth as he saw it; 
to duty as he understood it; to constitutional liberty as he 
conceived it. On March 8, 1910, the news ran through 
Virginia that he had suffered a stroke of paralysis at 
Daytona, and the whole State thrilled with voiceless ap- 
prehension. A little later he was brought home to Lynch- 
burg, and on June 29 " God's finger touched him and he 
slept." The rest is silence. 

It is well, ere " history fades into fable and fact becomes 
clouded with doubt and controversy," that the men of this 
generation should set down with loving intent, if halting 



tl57] 



Memori.\l Addresses: Senator Daniel 

phrase, the abundant excellencies of this great man's life. 
He was indeed a 

Statesman, yet friend to Trutli, of soul sincere. 
To action faithful, and in honor clear. 
Who broke no promise, served no private end. 
Who gained high honors, yet lost no friend. 

Maj. Daniel at the time of his death was not old as men 
reckon age. His natural powers were not abated nor his 
eye dimmed. He had not reached the concluding winter 
of life, merely its sober autumn, when death smote him 
and ended his activities. His life had been a notable one. 
He had known all the distinction that an admiring people 
could heap upon him and all the joy that springs from 
untiring toil. Within the years of his public service he 
had compressed many crowded hours of glorious life. 
That life has been, and will be, an inspiration to thousands 
who turn away from the sordid bickerings of time-servers 
and place-hunters to the contemplation of its beauty and 
purity. We will not soon look upon its like again. In the 
stan-y heavens which proclaim the handiwork of God, 
revolve gi'eat orbs whose fires have long been quenched, 
but to the eye of man they are still visible. Their light 
streams earthward in apparently undiminished splendor. 
It is so with our dead friend. The radiant glory of his life 
is not ended with death. 






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